The Hindu : National : `Statement on file notings misleading'

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Friday, Jul 28, 2006

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National

`Statement on file notings misleading'

Staff Correspondent

Activists demand a public discussion

NEW DELHI : Activists have criticised the statement issued on Wednesday by the Prime Minister's Office on the proposed amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act as "deliberately misleading."

In a statement on Thursday, Magsaysay award winner Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakthi Sanghathan and Shekhar Singh from the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, said Section 2(f) of the Act, which defines "information" to include any material in any form including "opinions" and "advices," definitely covered file notings.

They said the Central Information Commission had specifically held that a combined reading of Sections 2 (f), (i) and (j) indicated that the citizen had the right of access to a file, of which notings were an integral part.

File notings

The statement said if the legislature intended that "file notings" were to be exempted from disclosure, while defining a "record" or "file," it would have made a provision for it.

"In fact, the only entity which clings to the myth that file notings are not covered by the RTI Act is the Department of Personnel and Training, the nodal department for the RTI Act, which continues to wrongly and illegally state on its website that under the RTI Act file notings need not be given." They said exclusion of file notings from the purview of the Act would be contrary to the recommendation of the National Advisory Council, which had taken the position that they should be in the public domain as any other information process covered by the RTI law. The exclusion of file notings had also been opposed by the Administrative Reforms Commission in its recent report submitted to the Government.

The activists demanded a public discussion before formulating any amendments to the Act.

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