CIC ruling: Cabinet Secretariat to disclose details of agenda under RTI Act

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission ( CIC) has ruled Cabinet Secretariat cannot deny access to items on the agenda of the Cabinet after the meeting is over under Right to Information Act.

In a pro-disclosure order, chief information commissioner R K Mathur has directed Cabinet Secretariat to disclose all agenda items under the RTI Act once the meetings are over.

In a ruling on an RTI plea by RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), the CIC has also advised the Cabinet Secretariat to “put in place” a mechanism to monitor departments and ministries for their compliance with the requirement of sending monthly reports of work done by them to it. The order further says that it is “advisable” for ministries and departments to upload the “unclassified portions” of their monthly reports to Cabinet Secretariat on their respective websites.Nayak had filed an RTI application with Cabinet Secretariat seeking details of Cabinet agenda between August 2014 and December 2014.