The Prime Minister Office has informed that the information regarding the details of black money brought from foreign countries will not give under the Right to Information Act. The Prime Minister’s Office has declined to share information citing a provision of the RTI Act that bars revelation of information that may obstruct investigation and prosecution of offenders.
The PMO’s response came after the Central Information Commission, in an order passed on October 16, and had asked it to provide details on black money within 15 days.
“As such, disclosure of all the action/efforts undertaken by the government at this juncture may impede the whole process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders and hence would attract the provision of exemption under Section 8 (1) (h) of the RTI Act,” it said in response to the RTI application filed by whistle-blower bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi in August last year.
Furthermore, such investigations come under the purview of different government intelligence and security organizations which have been excluded from the ambit of the RTI Act, the PMO reply said.
Chaturvedi, an officer of the Indian Forest Service, had sought the information on the quantum of black money brought from abroad since June 1, 2014.
In its initial reply to the RTI application, the PMO in October last year denied the information, saying that these are not covered under Section 2(f) of the transparency law which defines information. Aggrieved over the denial from the PMO, Chaturvedi had moved the Central Information Commission, which had last month ordered it to provide information within 15 days.
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