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| KAS officers defy CIC orders, refuse to declare assets | | RTI activists seek Khanday's intervention | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 20: The directions of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) notwithstanding, scores of KAS officers of the State have failed to make their assets public. They have not submitted the sought details to the General Administration Department (GAD). Pertinently the State Chief Information Commissioner heads the State's transparency institution.
The CIC, GR Sufi had directed the IAS and KAS officers in September 2011 to make the information about their assets public on the GAD website within 15 days of the issuance of the order. In a similar order the Government of India had directed the IAS and IPS officers to make their assets public. However, the KAS officers continue to ignore the order in total violation of the RTI Act.
The reluctance of the Government to take action against the erring officers has sent wrong signals to various quarters. The Government has already made changes in J&K RTI rules without the CIC's concurrence.
In September 2011 while disposing off a complaint filed by Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat against the General Administration Department, the CIC in his order said that "commission holds that GAD should hoist such immovable property details of officers which are owned and acquired by them out of their own sources of income on Government website."
The order further reads that the Commission has already informed the First Appellate Authority of the GAD about this decision. Some of the KAS officers had objected to the declaration of assets citing "security reasons" in J&K. The CIC set aside the argument saying "the Commission is constrained to observe that there is no express prohibition in the Act in this regard. The worthy IAS officers are at times performing more important functions and responsibilities with regard to law and order and security problems and they are obviously in senior positions than KAS officers. However, the Commission is also conscious of the fact that the IAS officers have hoisted only immovable property returns of All India and Central Services Rules. On the principle of equity, the same principle should be applied to the KAS officers."
The Chief Information Commissioner had earlier come under sharp criticism of observers on seeking "third party information" on the issue. The CIC had observed that Section 11 of the J&K Right to Information Act of 2009 was involved in the issue as the matter comes under purview of third party information, but RTI activists clearly differed on the assertion, arguing that the matter as the information sought about IAS , KAS officers assets is not a third party information as this is the information of assets owned by public servants who get salaries from tax payers money.
The Section 11 of the J&K RTI Act 2009 says that a Public Information Officer intends to disclose any information or record, or part thereof, on request made under the Act, which relates to or has been supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, the PIO shall within five days from the receipt of the request, give a written notice to such third party to make a submission in writing or orally regarding whether the information should be disclosed. "As such the submission of the third party shall be kept in view while taking a decision about the disclosure of information," the Section mentions.
GAD had issued the notice in July, inviting objections from all J&K cadre IAS/KAS officers [third party in this case] on whether the information regarding their property statements should be disclosed to the appellant, Dr Muzaffar Bhat, or not.
The CIC judgment in the case says the First Appellate Authority (1st AA) did comply with the directions. "He did ask for the objections, if any, from all the IAS/KAS officers of the State. As per the 1st AA only some of the KAS/IAS officers gave objections within the prescribed time. It is important to note that the FAA has confirmed that some officers have not raised any objections for any such disclosure," the judgment reads. "The Ist AA has agreed with few officers who have objected to the disclosure of information on the please that it amounts to invasion of privacy and would expose the officers to all sorts of risks by endangering their lives. Besides, the 1st AA says the disclosure of information is not going to serve the larger public interest and has no relation to the public activity."
A top bureaucrat of State had argued before the GAD that "we are the field officers and due to the prevailing law and order situation our property at times becomes targets for attack. Sharing such information without any cogent reason or specific purpose is against the mandate of law and purpose of the Act. Once this information is shared, there is every apprehension that the properties of officers will get targeted due to law and order problems."
Another officer has argued that "there have been good number of cases in the country where children of high profile private sector executives have been kidnapped for ransom. Even some private sector employees drawing huge salaries also expressed their reservations to media regarding disclosure of their income as it has security implications. The security situation in J&K continues to be fragile and majority of employees do not have the security cover especially to their families. So the sharing of information can become a big threat from criminals." Among such officers included Ms Tanveer Jehan who is Commissioner Secretary PWD (R&B) and she was also reluctant to share the information at that time but later on made her assets public.
With regard to objections by IAS/KAS officers that details of assets falls in the 'personal information' category, the CIC has ruled that the Madras High Court judgment says "the information relating to assets declaration of IAS officers cannot be said to be an information which cannot be accessed by the public authority. As those informations are either not more confidential or private informations."
"The Madras High Court has noted that as the details of assets of IAS officers have been hoisted on website, therefore privacy clause no more holds good," the CIC has ruled.
The prominent KAS officers who have not submitted their property statement include Sarmad Hafeez DC Kupwara, Bashir Ahmad Bhat Director Social Welfare, Dr Kanwal Krishen Kitchlu, Rafiq Hakeem, Inderjeet Singh, AM Wani etc.
Valley based RTI Activists Dr Muzaffar, Mohammad Ramzan Khan, Abdul Rehman, Shahnawaz Sultan, Mohammad Sadiq, Nazir Ganaie have appealed the new Chief Secretary to act over this matter and make sure that all IAS, KAS officers make their assets public. |
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