The Central Information Commission has directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to provide copies of all orders passed by the Union Government from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2015, granting remission to various prisoners across the country to A.G. Perarivalan, one of the convicts undergoing life imprisonment in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination case.
Perarivalan had sought to know whether any set of rules governing the provisions of Article 72 & 73 of the Constitution of India as well as those under Section 432-435 Cr.PC were framed by the Central government in compliance with the decision of the Supreme Court in Union of India Vs. V. Sriharan alias Murugan and others. Directing the MHA to furnish an ‘unambiguous reply’, Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Yashovardhan Azad said the petitioner was entitled to access the information.
“The Commission hastens to clarify that the right of appellant to know the rules governing him has no impact on any judicial verdict. Rather, it is in the larger public interest that such rules, if in existence, may be widely circulated,” he said.
‘Bad in law’
Referring to the denial of the information, the CIC said the Pubic Information Officer (PIO) had failed to apply his mind and sought a blanket refuge under the guise of the matter being sub judice. “It is well settled that mere pendency of a matter before a court of law does not render all information espousing the matter as exempted under the RTI Act. There was no specific direction from the court to that effect. Hence, the decision of PIO was bad in law.”
Mr. Azad said all that the appellant sought to know was the documented policy, rules governing the remission of convicts in the light of a judicial pronouncement.
The CIC directed the PIO to upload on the MHA website all orders, granting or denying remission to various life convicts, passed from the year 2000 onwards.
