Cancel the order bringing cabinet decision under RTI: Kerala to High Court
- The Kerala Chief Information Officer was ordered to publish cabinet decisions, to bring them under the RTI
- The Kerala Government decided not to reveal cabinet decisions, citing technical reasons
- Following controversies, the LDF government said it will publish decisions within 48 hours
FollowChief Information Commissioner (CIC) Vinson M Paul had ordered cabinet decisions taken by the UDF government from January to March 2016, just before Assembly elections, to be published publicly within ten days, based on a complaint filed by RTI activist D B Binu. The CIC issued the order on 15 June in an appeal filed by the activist after his application was turned down by the State Public Information Officer on the grounds that they were exempted under Section 8(1)(i) of RTI Act.
It was during this period that the UDF government took controversial decisions like the allocation of land to god-man Santhosh Madhavan and the reclamation of Metran Kayal for a tourism project. Following this, the Chief Secretary issued an order on 20 July 2016.
The Kerala government has now approached the High Court, seeking a cancellation of the order.
Read more: Kerala cabinet decisions now under RTI ambit
The UDF government had originally refused to adhere to the order on technical grounds. After the issue became a large public controversy, the government agreed to publish cabinet decision after a 48 hour delay.
The government then claimed that it had approached the High Court to get clarity as to who should give the details and how it should be given. However, the petition filed by the Chief Secretary in the High Court makes it clear that the government is going back on its stand.
The first request in the petition is to cancel the order of the CIC, which, the petition claimed, was made without studying the situation. The second request is to declare that the government is not bound to issue cabinet decisions in applications filed under the RTI Act.
The petition also states that the cabinet decisions will be made public after decisions were taken by the respective department, and not at the cabinet level.
Read more: Kerala’s Left govt. not to disclose cabinet decisions under RTI
The court is yet to issue its order on the petition, but since the Kerala government has also asked for clarifications on certain sections of the RTI Act itself, it seems like the order will encompass the RTI Act in its entirety.
