‘Refusal to share information against spirit of RTI Act’.

The Hindu: Chennai: Tuesday, June 7, 2016. 

A. G. Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassinatin case, had in a query sent to the Superintendent of the Yerwada prison, Pune, sought a copy of the entire file relating to Sanjay Dutt’s release and also details of the actor’s conduct in prison. The Maharashtra government had maintained that the decision to grant remission to Mr. Dutt was taken by the Jail Superintendent and the government had no role in the matter of remissions.

When contacted, Venkatesh Nayak, programme coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said the grounds for rejecting Perarivalan’s plea were unreasonable and were completely invalid. “There is nothing in the RTI Act that enables a Public Information Officer to reject a petition simply because the information sought relates to a third party. In this case, the details sought by the convict pertains to a decision of the executive. There is no confidentiality involved in making the orders of a premature release public,” he said.

Peoples Union for Civil Liberties general secretary V. Suresh said premature release of a convict is an issue that pertains to public policy and should be made public. The fundamental principle of the RTI Act is that the petitioner need not reveal what he/she intends to do with the information sought.