Thursday, August 21, 2025

CIC directs SCTIMST to provide information under RTI query

The Hindu: Thiruvananthapuram: Thursday, 21 August 2025.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the central public information officer (CPIO) of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) to take necessary steps for the suo motu disclosure of information related to the minutes and agenda of SCTIMST’s Governing Body (GB) and institute body (IB) meetings on their website in compliance with the provisions of Section 4 of the Right to Information Act.
The CIC gave this decision in response to an appeal filed by an SCTIMST employee, who had in December 2023, filed an RTI, seeking a copy of the minutes of the GB meetings (107 to 113) and IB meetings from July 2020.
The CPIO of the SCTIMST had offered to provide information on specific RTI request relating to any particular or relevant issue. Dissatisfied, the applicant had first approached the First Appellant Authority in January 2024. The present CIC decision is in response to a second and recent appeal.
At the hearing of the second appeal, the Director of the SCTIMST as well as the CPIO said that they were not able to provide the minutes “due to political problems” and sought time till October 2025 to make it available in the public domain
The CIC has thus allowed time till October 2025, as requested by the SCTIMST, to make maximum information available on its website in larger public interest.