The report submitted by the Tiruvallur Collector in the Justice P.D. Dinakaran land grab case need not be disclosed to the public, the Tamil Nadu Information Commission has ruled in a recent order.
Ruling against petitioner V. Madhav, who had sought the documents under the Right to Information Act, the Commission accepted the Collector's affidavit that access need not be given to the documents under Sections 8(1)(c) and 8(1)(h) of the Act.
Section 8(1)(c) provides exemption to “information, the disclosure of which will cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State legislature.” Section 8(1)(h) provides exemption to “information, which will impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders.”
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Mr. Madhav, however, argued that both the Collector and the Commission had not explained where breach of privilege would be committed or how the process of investigation would be impeded.
He pointed out that a 2007 Delhi High Court order had specifically stated that “the authority withholding information must show satisfactory reasons as to why the release of such information will hamper the investigation process.”
The order had added further that “such reasons should be germane, and the opinion of the process being hampered should be reasonable and based on some material. Sans this consideration, Section 8 (1) (h) and other such provisions will become a haven for dodging demands for information.”
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Mr. Madhav added a media entity had obtained possession of the documents and it was only reasonable that the documents be also made available to the general public.