Information Commissioner refers the entire matter with all papers to a larger bench
20 Jan, 2014Readers may remember a few days before 2013 ended Ms. Maja Daruwala and I had approached the Central Information Commission (CIC) in India seeking interim orders to preserve all official files in all departments until the newly elected government takes over. The CIC gave an interim order based on our complaint under the Right to Information Act and posted the matter for further hearing on 15th January, 2014.
Today, the CIC heard the matter again. The Administrative Reforms Dept. of the Delhi Government sent its representatives with a submission in this issue. The Chief Secretary who was the Respondent in our case ordered an inquiry into the alleged incident of destruction of official papers revealed by a media through an alleged "sting operation." He also required all departments to certify that no files had been destroyed in the interim and even sent a format for reporting compliance. Copies of all these documents were submitted by the representatives of the AR Dept. today. I am circulating a scanned copy of these documents for your reference.
Meanwhile an individual - Mr. R K Jain has sought to intervene in this matter by questioning the jurisdiction of the CIC to issue such orders. The Information Commissioner has decided to refer this entire matter with all papers to a larger bench of the Commission without deciding whether to allow the intervention or not. I will inform you of the next date of hearing when I get to know of it.
Venkatesh Nayak