Information regarding Group of Ministers (GoM) in the Ministry of Science & Technology

Background

The appellant sought information related with a Group of Ministers (GoM) in the Ministry of Science & Technology such as their constitution, their deliberations, minutes of meeting etc. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided part information and refused for other information claiming that sought information was not available. The PIO denied the minutes of the meeting under section 8(1)(i) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers: Provided that the decisions of Council of Ministers, the reasons thereof, and the material on the basis of which the decisions were taken shall be made public after the decision has been taken, and the matter is complete, or over: Provided further that those matters which come under the exemptions specified in this section shall not be disclosed; of the RTI Act. Later the respondents submitted that some of the information was not provided to the appellant as the same had been provided to him separately by the Cabinet Secretariat.

View of CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) perused the minutes of GoM and rejected the appeal observing that the minutes contained information which had national security implications and thus cannot be disclosed to the appellant.

Citation: Shri Kishanlal Mittal v. Ministry of Science & Technology in File No.CIC/LS/A/2011/004086