CIC panel hits out at government for not fulfilling mandatory disclosure under RTI

NEW DELHI: The government’s policy of classifying documents as ‘secret’, ‘top secret’ and ‘confidential’ is ad hoc and needs to be examined, a two-member independent committee formed by the Central Information Commission has concluded in a scathing report.

The panel has also slammed the government for not fulfilling the mandatory requirement of proactive disclosure under the Right to Information Act even a decade after the implementation of the law, people familiar with the matter told ET.

The panel, comprising former chief information commissioner AN Tiwari and former information commissioner Prof MM Ansari, has submitted a critical 80-page report ‘Transparency Audit towards an Open and Accountable Government’ to CIC.

Formed last year, the panel was mandated to check how government departments are faring in proactive disclosure of information, the quality of disclosure and how to conduct a third-party transparency audit of the government.
It has concluded that the government is faring poorly in proactively disclosing information – a mandatory requirement under Section 4 of RTI Act.

The information being disclosed, according to the committee, is random and there is no uniformity in disclosure.

It has said that the government’s policy in classifying documents as secret is ad hoc and needs to be examined.

“Secrecy now guides and controls the government. It is not conducive to open and transparent government,” the report says, according to one of the persons cited earlier.