The Hindu : Information on nuclear installations cannot be made public: Supreme Court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 07, 2004

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Information on nuclear installations cannot be made public: Supreme Court

By J. Venkatesan

New Delhi Jan. 6. The Supreme Court today ruled that information relating to nuclear installations in the country could not be made public in the national interest, upholding the validity of Section 18 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962. This empowers the Centre to withhold all information relating to nuclear power stations.

A Bench comprising the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare and Justice S.B. Sinha, dismissed two appeals — one by the People's Union for Civil Liberties and another by the Bombay Sarvoday Mandal — challenging the Bombay High Court judgment rejecting their petitions.

The appellants had filed petitions in the public interest before the High Court for a direction to the Centre to supply them copies of the report of all nuclear power stations to verify whether adequate safety measures had been adopted to protect human lives and the ecology in the event of an accident. The petitioners had also challenged Section 18 of the Act.

Dismissing the appeals, the Bench said that citizens no doubt had a fundamental right to information under Article 19 (I) (a) of the Constitution but such a right was subject to reasonable restrictions in the interest of national security. The appellants were not entitled to receive documents, which had been declared "secret" under Section 18 of the Act.

The Bench noted that though the Centre had supplied to the court in sealed cover, copies of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board's reports titled "Safety issues in the Department of Atomic Energy institutions" and the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, had offered the court to read the report, "we do not think it appropriate to open the seal and read the same."

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