CIC asks CVC to disclose action taken against former Civil Aviation Minister
3 Apr, 2013In August 2012, two members of parliament (MPs) had asked for an enquiry by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) into the complaint filed by former Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Airlines, Sunil Arora against the then Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. In this context, an application was filed with the CVC under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get the details of action taken on the letters given by the two MPs and the allegations made by Mr. Arora against the former aviation minister.
The CVC rejected the application stating that the sought information was held under fiduciary capacity and hence was exempt from the transparency act. However, the chief information commissioner at the Central Information Commission (CIC) didn’t accept the CVC’s argument and held that communication received from MPs cannot be classified as either a personal information or as information held in a fiduciary capacity unless they had marked it as confidential.
The CIC directed the CVC to disclose the desired information within 15 days. However, he exempted the disclosure of original complaint filed by Mr. Arora contending that it might affect the ongoing investigation.