Jammu, May 26 : Army has refused to make public the information under RTI, on soldiers whose bodies were mutilated in skirmishes with Pakistan in last five years. Three months after the application was filed, Army cited Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act to refuse the information without giving any reason for denial, which is mandatory whenever information is denied to an RTI applicant.
Section 8(1)(a) allows to withhold "information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence".
Ironically, the class of information, the disclosure of which is considered by Army to be detrimental to national interests and security, had been made public by Defence Minister A K Antony on February 27 in Rajya Sabha. When asked whether class of information which has been placed on the floor of Parliament can be denied to an RTI applicant, Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said "absolutely not." He said once information has been placed before Parliament, it cannot be denied to an RTI applicant.
|
