Arvind Kejriwal, Right to Information (RTI) activist, has termed 'illegal' the Cabinet secretariat's refusal to release information relating to the transfer of the Justice Department secretary within three months of her appointment to the post.
“This must be treated as mala fide denial of information and the strongest penalty must be imposed on the officer concerned in the Cabinet secretariat,” the Magsaysay Award-winning Mr. Kejriwal told The Hindu here on Monday. The 1976-batch IAS officer Bhupender Prasad, the first full-time secretary in the Justice Department, was shifted to the Inland Waterways Authority and replaced by the former Kerala Chief Secretary Neela Gangadharan.
Mr. Kejriwal said the two reasons cited by the Cabinet secretariat for denying information to RTI activist S.C. Agrawal, that ‘reasons' do not come under the definition of the RTI Act and that it would invade the privacy of the individuals concerned, were untenable as, under the Act, materials on the basis of which decisions had been taken shall be made public once the decision had been taken and the matter was complete or over. “The decision has been taken in this case, but they just quote some section and deny information,” he said.
Mr. Kejriwal said he had a similar experience when he sought information from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in November, 2005, about the appointment of officers from under secretaries to secretaries over two years. When the request was made, he had approached the Central Information Commission (CIC). The CIC directed the Cabinet secretariat to provide the information he had sought. When the CIC order was not complied with, he once again approached the CIC seeking imposition of penalty for non-compliance. When the CIC refused to hear the case, he moved the Delhi High Court. The High Court asked the CIC to hear the matter again. The CIC did so and once again issued orders to the Cabinet secretariat to release the information, but nothing has materialised so far, Mr. Kejriwal said.
