CIC to IB: Why report on Sanjiv Chaturvedi be not made public?

New Delhi, Mar 29: Central Information Commission has issued a notice to Intelligence Bureau, an organisation exempted from the transparency law except in some cases, asking it to explain why its report on alleged harassment of whistleblower IFoS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi by officials be not made public.

"The Intelligence Bureau is one of the organisations specified in Second Schedule to the RTI Act u/s 24, exempting it from purview of RTI Act except when CIC considered that the information sought is either related to corruption or violation of human rights by that organisation," Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu held.

He noted that the applicant has stated that the information sought is relating to alleged violation of human rights. Acharyulu said even if IB had objected to sharing of its report, gist of which is already in public domain, the Ministry of Environment and Forest could have given a copy of it to Sanjiv Chaturvedi.

"Even though the organisation/IB is totally exempted under section 24, this kind of information could be furnished by IB. As per second proviso to section 24, the information shall only be provided after the approval of the Central Information Commission. Hence the applicant approached the Commission seeking approval for disclosure of IB report mentioned above," he noted.

Chaturvedi, who exposed alleged forestry scam in Haryana, had sought the copy of IB report, which was sent to Cabinet Secretary and the Ministry of Environment and Forests in August, 2014, on the issue of allegedly "foisting false cases against him in retaliation of his investigation and reports against major corruption in the state".

Intelligence Bureau being an exempted organisation except in cases of allegations of human rights violations or corruption refused to make it public.

The summary of IB report provided to him stated, "There appears to be truth in the contention of Sanjiv Chaturvedi regarding alleged harassment meted out to him by Haryana Government. His request for change of cadre from Haryana to Uttarakhand merits consideration."

PTI