The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Home Ministry to disclose file notings and correspondence related to the mercy petitions of all death row convicts including Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru.
Giving the order information commissioner Sushma Singh asked the home ministry to provide information of mercy petitions related to all convicts (pending and disposed) after Devindersingh Khullar and Mahendernath Dass.
The order was based on a RTI application filed by activists S C Agrawal and Venkatesh Nayak. According to the decision the ministry will give file notings not forming of the ministerial advice to the President of India after severing all names and other references regarding the identities of the public servants regarding those file notings and making those correspondence.
The CPIO has also been asked to disclose the copies of the correspondence made from time to time in connection with the mercy petitions except those, which in his opinion should not be disclosed being exempt in terms of section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act.
However, the official will have to pass a speaking order if He decides to withhold some of the correspondence. The Central Commissioner has also said Agrawal would be free to appeal.
The Rly. ministry itself does not bother to implement directives given by CIC. Home Affairs ministry, which is coordinating or nodal ministry does not bother on such trivial decisions of our own seniors. I have several instances of CIC changing the tactics of advising the appellant to repeat the process