The Central Information Commission has held that the External Affairs Ministry should disclose all information related to the Bhopal Gas tragedy, including communication exchanged between it and the Central Bureau of Investigation on the extradition of the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson.
The CIC made its recommendation under the mandate of the RTI Act which requires computerisation of the records of all public authorities.
"The RTI Act is potentially a very powerful legislation. We are probably the most advanced in the whole world in terms of the act, but not necessarily in terms of its implementation," said Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah
The CIC has ruled that judicial proceedings of all courts and tribunals are beyond the purview of the Right to Information Act.The bench said 'The Judiciary is independent and all courts and tribunals must work independently and without interference.
The Central Information Commission has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to disclose details of its probe into the allegations of corruption in the Research and Analysis Wing along with the names of the officers who dealt with the case. The case relates to a complaint filed by former RAW officer Major General (retired) Vinay Kumar Singh with the CBI in October 2008.
During the hour-long proceedings, the ministry was at the receiving end as it failed to explain its reasoning that providing the documents could lead to unrest in the country, including in Netaji's home state of West Bengal.
A full bench of the Central Information Commission on Monday passed a historic judgment, stating that political parties would under the ambit of the Right to Information Act). While the CIC verdict was made about a case connected to the Communist Party of India, fresh complaints may be filed against all other parties before the CIC to secure a similar verdict and put them under the ambit of the RTI.
The commission suggested that a comprehensive plan should be devised to handle the issue of missing files which has become a "stumbling block" in implementing the RTI act.
A full bench comprising of Chief Information Commissioner Satyanand Mishra and Commissioners M L Sharma and Annapurna Dikshit of the Central Information Commission reserved its verdict on political funding.
Even five years after the implementation of the Right To Information Act, the government has failed to frame rules for the selection of Chief Information Commissioners across the country which has resulted in "arbitrary selection" of these officials, a leading activist has alleged.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has not sought any reimbursement for medical bills from the government, the Central Information Commission has said.
The resignations of former India cricketers Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Nilesh Kulkarni from Mumbai Cricket Association's recommendatory body for development of the game, CIC, do not constitute a crisis, according to MCA president Ravi Savant.
The government has decided to challenge in the Delhi high court a decision of the Central Information Commission allowing disclosure of records related to appointment of Research and Analysis Wing chief.
In an unusual order, the central information commission has agreed that minutes of tender committee meetings should "ideally" be made public, but left it to the government department concerned to take a call on it.
The Central Information Commission on Tuesday directed the Atomic Energy Department to make public the cabinet note relating to proposals for new bills on web sites within seven days of tabling in the Parliament.
Moves Bombay HC against CIC order issued in 'public interest'
The development comes after the shareholders of Ambadi Investments, the holding company of the Rs 38,100-crore Murugappa Group, voted against the induction of 59-year-old Valli Arunachalam, the eldest daughter of former executive chairman M V Murugappan, into its board.
The meeting, which will take place almost a month after incumbent CIC Wajahat Habibullah resigned, is being looked forward to by RTI activists who have been demanding transparency in the selection process and pressing for the appointment of a non-bureaucrat to the post.
Report consists of recommendations for dividing the Western Ghats region into various ecologically sensitive zones.
Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said," The office of Leader of Opposition is a public authority as it is created by a notification of the government," but reserved his decision whether it is part of Lok Sabha secretariat or an independent office.
In this interview with Shobha Warrier, G Krishnan talks about the implications of the verdict on the Western Ghats and other environmental issues.
The Walmart case came before the CIC on a plea by activist Subhash Agrawal.
In yet another move to close the regulatory gap between banks and shadow banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has mandated exposure limits to the non-banking finance companies, in line with commercial banks. In the large exposure framework released on Tuesday, the regulator capped aggregrate exposure of NBFCs which are in the upper layer toward one entity at 20 per cent of capital base. The limit can only be extended by another 5% with board's approval. For a particular borrower group, the cap is at 25 per cent, with additional 10 per cent if exposure is towards infrastructure.
The order came following an appeal by an RTI applicant who had sought to know the action taken report on the letters written by him to Finance and External Affairs ministries among other public authorities in connection with the illegal wealth stashed abroad.
The Central Information Commission has directed the Delhi Police and Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh to make public forensic reports in the alleged doctored CD case carrying conversation among lawyers Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The Central Information Commision has directed the Delhi Police to submit all documents pertaining to the Batla House encounter before it by Thursday to decide whether the information can be disclosed to an RTI applicant or not.
Citing lack of staff as a key reason for the under-performance of Information Commissions, the Central Information Commission has written to the government asking it to provide more staff and resources in order to fulfill the requirements of implementing the RTI Act satisfactorily.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday recalled an order and admitted that it committed a "mistake of law" by directing that only sitting or retired high court chief justices or an apex court judge could head the central and state information commissions.
He admitted that the new chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has been in touch with him to update the right to information act and bring it at par with the one operating at the central level.
US tech giant IBM is betting big on the India growth story and plans to open more software development centres in the country as it looks to partner with the government in its digitisation journey, its chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna said on Friday. On a visit to India, Krishna met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar to discuss deeper collaboration including skilling and workforce development. The firm that originally designed the technology and system behind ATMs, barcodes and the US social security net, is greatly enthused with the speed at which the Indian government is willing to make decisions and where it is moving, he told a select media briefing.
Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra rejected the contentions of the PMO which had claimed that such class of information could not be provided "without compromising interests of the State and other specified concerns".
For the first time, the value of card and mobile payments of Rs 10.57 trillion was more than ATM withdrawals of Rs 9.12 trillion in Q4 of fiscal 2019-20. In the months of lockdown, the gap may have widened further, but cash could be back in vogue when the situation normalises.
The coveted chief information commissioner's post in Jammu and Kashmir went to GR Sofi, presently chief commissioner, Income Tax, Amritsar region. Sofi, an Indian Revenue Service officer of 1977 batch will retire shortly.
The government is likely to file a review petition before the Supreme Court on its September 13 judgement that judges should also be appointed as members of the Central Information Commission and state commissions.
Some genius assumed that a 2,000 note could seamlessly replace 500s and 1000s in ordinary transactions. If that genius had consulted an actual chai-wallah, he might have thought twice, argues Devangshu Datta.
Sajjan Jindal's JSW Energy moved a step closer to securing its coal requirements, signing a definitive agreement with the management of CIC Energy on Wednesday, to buy them out and take control of the Toronto-listed company. CIC Energy has an 'A-grade' mining-cum-power complex called the Mmamabula Energy Complex in Botswana, Africa. The field there is estimated to have 2.6 billion tonnes of high-thermal coal, mostly above 6,000 Kcal/kg of calorific value.
The government has ruled out amending the RTI Act to give immunity to political parties from providing information after the recent CIC's landmark order brought them under the ambit of the transparency law.
With weekly additions slowing, it's likely that demand could be slackening
The Commission, however, said expenses incurred during the treatment should be disclosed since they are made from the public exchequer.
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