Scroll: New Delhi: Tuesday, August 18, 2020.
Former Chief Information Commissioner
Wajahat Habibullah said this was a misuse of the RTI Act and should be
penalised under the law.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office
has denied to give information related to the PM CARES Fund –set up in March in
the wake of the coronavirus pandemic to a Right to Information activist, saying
it would “disproportionately divert the resources”, The Hindu reported on
Sunday.
This happened despite a Kerala High
Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission that
the rationale stated by the prime minister’s office can be only used when asked
to change the format of information provided and not to deny it fully.
PM Cares an acronym for Prime
Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations was set up in
March with the stated objective of being a “dedicated national fund” to deal
with “any kind of emergency or distress situation”. Modi is the fund’s
chairperson and senior Cabinet members serve as trustees. Opposition parties
have questioned the need to create the reserve when Prime Minister’s National
Relief Fund is already in existence. They have also expressed doubts about the
fund’s transparency.
RTI activist Commodore Lokesh Batra
(retired) filed an application, seeking details about the number of requests
and appeals received and disposed of by Modi’s office each month since April
this year, as well as the information related to PM CARES and the Prime
Minister’s National Relief Fund. On August 14, the prime minister’s office
responded with the overall data, but refused to divulge information specific to
the two funds.
“The information sought by you is not
maintained in this office in compiled form,” the chief public information
officer in the PMO said. “Its collection and compilation would
disproportionately divert the resources of this office from the efficient discharge
of its normal functions, thereby attracting the provisions under Section 7(9)
of the Act.”
The stated Section in the reply says:
“An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought
unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority
or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in
question.”
India’s first Chief Information
Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah told the newspaper that this was a misuse of
the RTI Act and should be penalised under the law. “There is no ambiguity,” he
added. “This is a misuse of the clause by CPIOs. It is up to the information
commissions to levy penalties as this would amount to misinformation provided
under the Act. In my time, it was the initial phase when people were still
learning about the Act, so we were lenient with regard to penalties on this
issue. However, it is now well established and there is no excuse for such
misuse.”
In May, the PMO’s office had said that
the PM CARES Fund was not a “public authority” under the RTI Act. A law student
from Bengaluru had filed an RTI application, seeking details about the
constitution of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency
Situations Fund. The applicant had asked for copies of the fund’s trust deed
and all government orders related to its creation and functioning.
Under the RTI Act, a public authority
is an organisation established (a) under or by the Constitution (b) by any
other law made by the parliament or (c) by a notification or order issued by
the government. The definition also covers organisations financed substantially
by the government and non-governmental organisations.
Last month, the Centre told the
Supreme Court that the PM Cares Fund is a “public charitable trust” to which
anyone can contribute, adding that it is a “misconception” that contributions
received by a public trust like this can be transferred to a statutory fund
like the NDRF. It added that funds to the NDRF and the State Disaster Response
Fund were made available through budgetary allocations.
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