The Opposition and the government appear to be headed for a major clash over the solar judicial commission report with former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy seeking a copy of the report under the RTI Act and Law Minister A.K. Balan stating categorically that there is no question of the government passing the report to anyone till it is tabled in the Assembly as mandated by law.
Mr. Chandy has accused the government of having denied natural justice to him and other leaders who are proposed to be investigated against by not sharing the commission report before initiating action on it.
“I have submitted an application for a copy of the report under the Right to Information Act. If I don’t get it thus, I will approach the Chief Minister directly. My plan is to fight legally. Everything is in place,” Mr. Chandy told reporters at Thodupuzha on Saturday after his meeting with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Chandy, who was at Thodupuzha to address a family meet at Vannapuram to mark the birth anniversary of the late Indira Gandhi, said the government should ideally publish the entire commission report immediately. It was unfair on the part of the government to have only published only bits and pieces of the report.
Neither the Chief Minister nor anyone else in the government had so far revealed what the commission had said about the five terms of reference given to it, he pointed out.
However, talking to reporters in New Delhi, Law Minister A.K. Balan said there was no question of the government handing over the copy to Mr. Chandy.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, the government need place the report in the Assembly only within six months of its submission. The Act does not require the government to share it with any aggrieved person. Never has such a thing been done. We will comply with the legal provisions of the relevant Act. As such, there is no meaning to all these statements,” Mr. Balan said.