The Water Resources (Inter-State Water Cell) Department has ordered that all documents and information related to inter-State water issues not be disclosed to the public even under the Right to Information Act.
Documents and information privy to the government, the disclosure of which it feels might hamper the interests of the State, should also be withheld until disposal of various cases pending before the Supreme Court and other courts.
The order, issued by Additional Chief Secretary (Water Resources) V. J. Kurian, cites Section 8 of the RTI Act which says that the State has no obligation to release information that would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific and economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.
The order says that pleadings filed in pending cases and the documents relied upon in the cases are to be protected from disclosure as their disclosure might adversely affect the conduct of cases. “Also the documents that are privy to Government and not filed in court need not be disclosed to others because disclosure of the same may hamper the interest of the State in future.”
It may be recalled that the order of the Additional Chief Secretary is in contravention of earlier orders of the State Information Commission. The Office of the Chief Engineer (Inter-State Waters) had earlier declined a request from this correspondent under the RTI Act for a copy of the Mullaperiyar Dam Break Analysis on the ground that the details sought came under the “purview of strategic interests of the State” mentioned in Section 8. The State Information Officer at the Office had also obtained an advice from the then Additional Chief Secretary (Water Resources) to the effect that the information should be denied under the Section. However, the Commission rejected the arguments of the Department and ordered the Dam Break Analysis and other documents to be released.
The Department had failed to produce the Analysis before the Supreme Court though it was commissioned for filing before the Court. The other documents were the ones produced before the Court, including various studies, on safety aspects of the dam.
Mr. Kurian’s order has invited protests and general secretary of the Kerala RTI Federation D.B. Binu has filed a complaint before the Commission challenging the order. A full bench of the Commission is likely to hear the case.
Mr. Binu noted in his petition that the Additional Chief Secretary had no legal authority to issue the order. Denial of information without sufficient reason was against the Act. The Act provides that the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature, shall not be denied to any person.
