Thiruvananthapuram: The State Information Commission has ordered the government to issue the copies of the cabinet agenda and minutes under the Right to Information Act and also recommended that all cabinet decisions may be published on the government's official websites at the earliest. Chief Information Commissioner Vinson M. Paul issued the order considering an appeal filed by advocate D.B. Binu of the Human Rights Defence Forum against the decision of the state public information officer denying the copies of the cabinet decisions from January 1 to March 12 under the RTI Act.
Many controversial decisions of the previous UDF government pertaining to land assignments and conversion were taken during this period. The CIC's order said that the information sought by the petitioner should be provided within ten days free of cost and the same should be reported to the commission secretary. If a cabinet decision was pending on any of the items in the agendas sought by the petitioner, the details of those items need not be revealed.
If there were any practical difficulties in giving the certified copies of any of the documents, the petitioner should be allowed to see those documents and note down the required portions. Steps should also be taken to avoid such practical issues in future, said the commission order. The commission maintained that the details regarding all cabinet decisions should be given under the RTI Act once the procedures regarding the decision were order.
He added that since the norms stipulate that the departments concerned should issue orders regarding the cabinet decisions within 48 hours of the decision, there was no reason in denying information citing that the state information officer was unaware whether the procedures were over. The commission also suggested computerisation of the cabinet proceedings to sort out such issues.
