Moneylife: Thursday, October 31, 2024.
When the bureaucrats decide not to understand simple things like a date and a weblink, the common citizen faces a stonewall. Upholding a reply given by the central public information officer of the department of economic affairs (DEA) under the Union ministry of finance (FinMin), the first appellate authority (FAA) discarded a first appeal filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The RTI and first appeal filed by Delhi-based RTI activist commodore (Cmde) Lokesh Batra (retd), is related to the appointment and financial asset declaration by Madhabi Puri Buch, the chairperson of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
While sharing dates related to the appointment of Ms Buch as SEBI chief, the CPIO of FinMin refused to share information on dates when Ms Buch and her family declared their financial assets. Instead of sharing dates, Jasvinder Singh, undersecretary to the government of India and CPIO stated, "The disclosures to be made by the members and chairman of the board are governed by the code of conflict of interests for members of board, which may be accessed at https://www.sebi.gov.in/commondata/conf.pdf."
When Cmde Batra filed the first appeal, Shekhar Chaudhary, director of the FM division in DEA, simply said, "I have gone through all records related to the appeal in respect of the RTI application as well as the reply of the CPIO dated 27 September 2024. Based on the available records, it is perceived that the point-wise reply provided by the CPIO to the said RTI application is correct, based on facts."
The basic issue with both the CPIO and FAA of FinMin is that Cmde Batra has simply asked to provide dates on which Ms Buch declared the complete details of the 'financial assets and equities' held by her and her family.
However, instead of sharing the dates, all the CPIO did was provide a link to SEBI's code of conflict of interest for members of the board. The FAA also seems not to understand the difference between dates and a weblink and disposed of the appeal filed by Cmde Batra in a routine matter.
The RTI activist filed applications on the same subject with SEBI and FinMin. SEBI told him that it does not have any information readily available on its chairperson's appointment, her application for the post, declaration of assets and cases where she had recused herself due to conflicts of interest.
Going one step ahead by sharing dates related to the appointment of Ms Buch as chairperson of SEBI, the FinMin CPIO denied sharing information on dates when Ms Buch and her family declared their financial assets.
In his first appeal, Cmde Batra stated that "The CPIO did not provide information on Points 2(d) and 2(e) specifically about date/ dates. Please note that each of the above two queries seeks 'dates only'. The CPIO instead provided a link to 'Code on Conflict of Interests for Members of Board'."
The FAA, however, upheld that the information(!) provided by the CPIO is correct and based on facts. Cmde Batra says, "Did the current chairperson of the SEBI, Ms Buch, make a declaration(s) to the government of India of complete details of 'financial assets and equities' held by her (Ms and her concerned family members? Going by the RTI and first appeal responses from the FinMin, the answer is 'NO'."
As reported by Moneylife, except for sharing the dates of Ms Buch's appointment, SEBI did not provide any information on the appointment, her application for the post, declaration of assets, or cases where she had recused herself due to conflicts of interest. In fact, by denying the information, SEBI contradicted its statement issued on 11 August 2022.
In that statement, SEBI stated, "...it is emphasised that SEBI has adequate internal mechanisms for addressing issues relating to conflict of interest, which include disclosure framework and provision for recusal. It is noted that relevant disclosures required in terms of holdings of securities and their transfers have been made by the chairperson from time to time. (The) chairperson has also recused herself in matters involving potential conflicts of interest."
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