The Central Information Commission on Monday directed the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to disclose all documents relating to controversial overlays purchases but allowed it to withhold the records used by the CBI in its probe.
Hearing the plea of an RTI applicant seeking all the documents related to Commonwealth Games, Information Commissioner M.L. Sharma advised him to limit his query to one aspect of the mega event.
The applicant Siddarth Pandey agreed to be provided with documents related to overlays purchases. The Organising Committee officials objected, saying the CBI is probing the matter, hence they cannot be given as well but Information Commissioner Sharma overruled that objection.
“Not all documents are used by the CBI in its probe. So the appellant should be allowed to inspect the documents which are not used by the CBI and decide about the records which he wants,” Sharma said.
He allowed the OC to withhold the documents which are in the possession of CBI or used by the agency in its probe.
Earlier, in a separate decision, Mr. Sharma had allowed the CWG Organising Committee to “withhold for now” disclosure of controversial contracts and agreements entered into with overlays suppliers after the CBI stated that revealing the information will impede the probe.
Following the submissions of the CBI, Information Commissioner M.L. Sharma said the information can be withheld from disclosure “at this stage”.
