Indian Express: New Delhi: Tuesday,
September 06, 2016.
The Chief
Information Commissioner has issued notices to the Prime Minister’s Office and
the Gujarat government on a petition filed by RTI activist Subhash Agrawal
seeking the disclosure of the correspondence exchanged between then chief
minister Narendra Modi and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the
aftermath of the 2002 riots information the PMO had denied another RTI applicant.
Citing an
order of the Delhi High Court which said that views of a third party as
mandated in Section 11 and 19(4) of the RTI Act must be taken, Chief
Information Commissioner Radha Krishna Mathur issued notices to the PMO and the
Gujarat government, directing them to present their submissions during the
hearing in first week of November.
On December
16, 2013, Agrawal sought a copy of all communications exchanged between the PMO
and the Gujarat government between February 27, 2002 and April 30, 2002 on the
law-and-order situation.
The PMO had
declined to disclose the information
when another RTI applicant sought it, saying it would adversely affect the
prosecution and conviction in the riot cases.
Later, on the
directions of the first appellate authority in the PMO, the Central Public
Information Officer had replied that they are already in the process of seeking
views of the third party (which was the Gujarat Government and Modi in the
case).
In some of
these letters, Vajpayee had reportedly advised Modi to adhere to “raj dharma”
and not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed or religion and expressed
doubts over whether the interests of the riot-hit were being properly taken
care of.
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