: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to provide its report to whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service officer, in relation to the false cases filed against him by some allegedly corrupt officers exposed by him during his tenure as Divisional Forest Officer in Haryana.
Information Commissioner M. Sridhar Acharyulu held that the IB report does not contain information excluded from the purview of the RTI Act by Section 24, which exempts intelligence and security organisations.
Mr. Chaturvedi had approached the CIC seeking a copy of the IB report, which was sent to the Cabinet Secretary and the Ministry of Environment and Forests in August 2014. The Commission directed that the copy be provided to him by May 6.
The IFS officer is at present posted as Deputy Secretary at All India Institute of Medical Sciences here. The CIC said that the Central Public Information Officer of the MoEF should have acted independently and applied his mind, as mandated by the RTI Act, to examine what would be the harm, or threat to national security, if the report containing the issue was shared.
“The IB established that the appellant was being harassed for exposing corruption…It is sad that the same department which recognised and established harassment of the appellant denied that copy to him,” said Mr. Acharyulu in his order. “This attitude lends support to the criticism that the State is the biggest litigant fighting a citizen or its own officer in tribunals and courts,” observed the Commission.
