Anil Goswami was forced to resign in 2015 for allegedly trying to block the arrest of a former minister (FILE)
New Delhi:
The Central Information Commission authorized the Cabinet secretariat not to disclose the records of the proceedings and to file notes leading to the resignation of former Union Home Minister Anil Goswami to who was asked to file his papers following allegations of his attempts to block the arrest of a former minister. by the CBI.
The panel based its judgment on an order of the Delhi High Court in a separate case in which it ruled that the filing notes and deliberations of the Group of Officers or the Disciplinary Authority could not be disclosed.
The court had, however, permitted information on actions taken in relation to complaints against an official to be provided to an applicant.
Chief Information Commissioner YK Sinha supported his argument for not disclosing information citing a Supreme Court verdict, which had detained “… professional records, including qualifications, performance, reports of ‘assessment, RTAs, disciplinary proceedings, etc. are all personal information … personal information is entitled to protection against unjustified invasion of privacy and conditional access is available where the stipulation of a public interest wider is satisfied. “
Mr Goswami was forced to resign in February 2015 for allegedly trying to block the arrest of a former Union minister in a CBI case.
Anurag Thakur, RTI claimant and IPS agent, had asked the Cabinet Secretariat for details of actions taken following a complaint against Mr. Goswami, including communications between various authorities and case notes.
Not getting a satisfactory answer, Mr. Thakur appealed to the ICC.
During the hearing, he argued that he wanted the information, including the case notes, to be in the public interest “to know the sequence of events which led to Anil Goswami’s forced resignation. “.
“The object which is at the basis of the present case is the disclosure of note sheets and other correspondence exchanged by various offices within the framework of the process of examining the complaint filed against Sri Goswami”, noted Mr. Sinha.
He said Thakur’s arguments failed to establish the broader public interest that would be served by the disclosure of the scorecard or the record.
“In the circumstances, the response provided by the respondent is considered justified and does not suffer from any infirmity. As such, it is not necessary to interfere with the same,” he ruled.
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