A plea filed under the RTI Act by A.G. Perarivalan, one of the life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking to know the grounds of actor Sanjay Dutt’s premature release from prison has been rejected on the grounds that the information sought related to a “third party”.
An earlier plea of the convict seeking the same information was rejected by the Yerawada prison authorities who replied that the Postal Order worth Rs. 10 enclosed with the petition was purchased in 2011 and could not be encashed.
“The fresh petition was rejected by the Information Officer/Jailor who said “the information sought by you is related to third party person. And, the information called by you is rejected.”
Appeal filed Aggrieved over the reply, Perarivalan, who would complete 25 years of imprisonment on June 11, 2016, has filed an appeal pointing out that a decision taken by a government authority based on discretion could not be hidden from public scrutiny by claiming protection of third-party rights.
‘Refusal to share information against spirit of RTI Act’
When contacted, Venkatesh Nayak, programme coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said the grounds for rejecting Perarivalan’s plea were unreasonable and were completely invalid. “There is nothing in the RTI Act that enables a Public Information Officer to reject a petition simply because the information sought relates to a third party. In this case, the details sought by the convict pertains to a decision of the executive. There is no confidentiality involved in making the orders of a premature release public,” he said.
Peoples Union for Civil Liberties general secretary V. Suresh said premature release of a convict is an issue that pertains to public policy and should be made public. The fundamental principle of the RTI Act is that the petitioner need not reveal what he/she intends to do with the information sought.
