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The Delhi High Court in a recent judgement dismissed a petition challenging the Chief Information Commission (CIC) order denying information related to the CBI's inquiry under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The high court held that the information related to the CBI's inquiry in an investigation of a case is exempted under Section 8 (1)(h) of the RTI Act. While dismissing the petition Justice Subramonium Prasad said, "Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act specifically exempts such information which will impede the process of investigation revealing a copy of the entire report of the CBI." "This Court is of the opinion that the information that is being sought by the Petitioner would impede the investigation conducted by the CBI involving a large-scale fraud, including many accused," Justice Prasad said in a judgement passed on October 5. The high also said, " Further, if such information falls in the hands of other offenders, it will certainly impede an ongoing investigation process." The high court made the observation while dismissing a petition moved by a former officer of Indian Audit and Account Services. Petitioner Brij Mohan had challenged an order of November 11, 2016 passed by the Central Information Commission (CIC) rejecting an appeal filed by him and upholding the order passed by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs. He was issued a show cause notice by the CBI during an investigation of alleged irregularities in National Spot Exchange Ltd. The show cause notice issued to the petitioner had alleged that he acted in a perfunctory manner by facilitating the appointment of the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) as a designated agency to oversee the functioning of the commodity spot exchanges. It was also indicated, "The Petitioner had shown undue favour to the NSEL by participating in the act of relaxing and diluting of the draft forwarded by FMC for appointment as designated agency for regulating spot exchanges and the action of the Petitioner had resulted in the FMC being appointed despite not being sufficiently empowered to take effective action against spot exchange." Thereafter, the petitioner has filed an RTI application seeking a copy of the CBI's report, and copies of the notings recorded at various levels in DEA in connection with the processing of the CBI's report. He also sought a copy of the Action Taken Report (ATR), a copy of the comments of CVC on the ATR of DEA, copies of the notes and correspondence, copy of the final orders passed by the Minister of Finance on the action proposed by CBI against the officers of erstwhile Forward Markets Commission (FMC), Mumbai. The Information sought was denied by the CPIO, CBI being exempted under section 8 (1) (h) of the RTI Act. He also filed an appeal which was rejected. Thereafter he had moved to the CIC which upheld the order. (ANI)
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