Central Information Commission rules State Cabinet meetings are under RTI

Thiruvananthapuram: Close on the heels of the state government refusing to give the details of cabinet decisions under the RTI, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the Central and state governments to publicise the decisions and agenda of Cabinet meetings. The directive was issued by Chief Information Comm-issioner Radha Krishna Mathur while considering a petition by activist Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), who had earlier filed an RTI application with the cabinet secretariat seeking the details of the cabinet agenda between August and December 2014.

Three days ago, chief secretary S.M. Vijayanand had clarified in the court that the Cabinet decisions can be provided through RTI after they are published as government order. As per the new ruling of the CIC in the petition filed by Mr Nayak, the Cabinet secretariat cannot deny access to items on the agenda of the Cabinet after the meeting is over under the Right to Information Act.

This ruling was applicable to state governments also. Earlier, the state government had moved the court against Chief Information Commissioner Vinson M. Paul’s order asking the government to reply to an RTI query on the cabinet decisions. Mr Paul had directed the state government on June 1 to divulge the details of the cabinet decisions taken between January 1 and April 12 as requested by the RTI applicants within 10 days.