Kochi: The decisions taken in a cabinet meeting is part of an administrative document and that should be freely available to the citizens in a democratic system. A decision taken in the cabinet is a public document and there is no need to put that under lock and key, said Adv DB Binu, RTI activist who filed the application before the State Information Commissioner for the copy of the cabinet decisions.
“There is a misconception amongst the people that the cabinet decision and the decision making process are the same. The cabinet minister is bound by the oath of secrecy to keep silent on the discussions in the cabinet and minutes of the discussions. But that does not mean that cabinet decisions are part of the oath of secrecy”, Adv Binu said. “Once a decision has been taken it is conveyed publicly”, he pointed out.
There is nothing wrong in CM not briefing the media after the cabinet meeting, he said, and added that the government then must ensure a transparent system to disseminate the decisions taken by the ministry. “The best solution is to webcast all decisions taken in the cabinet apart from issuing a detailed release after every cabinet meeting.Then it would be easy for the authorities concer-ned to provide the same to an RTI applicant”, he added.
“We should remember that leaders heading the present government were vociferous in their protest when the previous UDF government decided not to provide details of cabinet decisions under the RTI Act”, he said. The present government has a moral obligation to establish a system to release the information as early as possible, he added.
