New Delhi, April 28: The CIC has directed the Central Vigilance Commission not to destroy documents, whose disclosure is yet to be decided by it, even if there is a policy of disposing them of after a specified period.
Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said during a hearing that the documents sought by RTI applicants should not be destroyed till a decision is made on their disclosure.
The case is related to Maj Gen (Retd.) V K Singh who, through his RTI application in 2008, wanted to know from the CVC the status of his complaint highlighting the alleged corruption in Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
The CVC said in its reply that his complaint was “filed” and no file notings were available.
Author of book ‘India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing’, Singh said it is not possible that no records of deliberations over the complaint were available and submitted before the Commission that he wanted to inspect the records.
The representative of Central Vigilance Commission at the hearing before transparency panel yesterday said it may be possible that records may have been destroyed as Commission has a policy to destroy records of “filed” complaints which are more than a year old. Hence, inspection may not be possible.
She said she would check the status and inform Singh about it.
Habibullah said, “If there is a case pending under the RTI Act then the documents should not be destroyed till a final decision is taken on the disclosure.”
Singh who alleged several instances of corruption in the India’s external intelligence agency RAW in his book has been facing trial for alleged violation of Official Secrets Act.
–PTI