India Today: New Delhi: Tuesday,
January 24, 2017.
The HRD
ministry today made it clear that the Justice (retd.) A K Roopanwal Commission
report on the death of Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad Central University has been
tabled in both Houses of Parliament and hence it is a public document that can
be accessed through RTI.
The ministry
was responding to reports that it had rejected an RTI appeal for making public
the commissions report on the death of Vemula.
Replying to
an RTI query, the ministry had said that the file concerned was "under
submission" and a copy of the report cannot be provided.
In a
statement today, the ministry said, "The fact of the matter is the said
response to an RTI query was given at a time when the report of the Commission
of Inquiry constituted by the government had not been laid in Parliament."
It is a
statutory requirement under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 to lay the
report of the Commission on the Inquiry together with a memorandum of the
action taken thereon, before each House of Parliament within six months of
submission of the report by the Commission to the government, it said.
"The
said report has since been laid in both the Houses of Parliament on December
15, 2016. Therefore, it is a public document and anyone applying now under RTI
Act can be provided with a copy of the same," the HRD ministry said.
.JPG)
.JPG)
