COPY OF CHARGE-SHEET CANNOT BE DENIED UNDER RTI ACT: CIC
The CIC Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu held on
3rd November 2014 that ‘charge-sheet’ has to be disclosed after
separating non-disclosable portions, if any, as per restrictions
prescribed under RTI Act. Ms. Usha Kanth Asiwal sought to know from
Director of Vigilance Delhi, details of complaint made to Anti
Corruption Bureau on 25-04-2001 and inquiry leading to registration of
case against 13 persons under Prevention of Corruption Act, which is now
under prosecution in Tis Hazari Courts. She sought 22 point
information, which broadly relate to contents of the Charge-sheet.
The PIO denied the information u/s
8(1)(h) of the RTI Act claiming disclosure would impede investigation or
prosecution. The First Appellate Authority upheld the decision of the
PIO. She approached the Commission in second Appeal. Though demand was
not for copy of charge-sheet, the appellant agreed that a copy of
charge-sheet would answer his application. Then issue before the
Commission was whether charge sheet was public document, and if so could
that be shared under RTI Act with any citizen.
CIC Prof Sridhar Acharyulu explained:
‘The charge sheet is a report held by the investigating officer, or
public authority or court of law. As per the RTI Act, any information
held by the public authority can be accessed by the citizen subject to
the exceptions provided under Section 8. Because the charge-sheet
contains the evidence which need to be adduced in the court of law,
there is a possibility of opening up many details which could be
personal or private or confidential. If the allegation requires to be
proved by call data, the charge sheet refers to sheets of call data,
which surely contain call details unrelated to allegation. That could be
private information need to be protected. Hence each charge sheet has
to be separately examined and only after separating unnecessary and
unrelated details of evidence, and only required and permissible
information out of chargesheet should be disclosed. Thus Charge-sheet
can neither be prohibited enbloc from disclosure nor disclosed totally.
Charge-sheet is a document held by concerned authority, which has to
examine disclosable aspects vis-a-vis Section 8 and 9 of the RTI Act and
then decide the case’.
As per the Criminal Procedure, the
charge-sheet is the end product of investigation. With filing of
charge-sheet, the investigation is closed and defense that investigation
might get impeded does not stand at all. Whether revealing the
information impedes apprehension or prosecution is the next question.
The Respondent authority did not even raise this point and did nothing
to explain the Commission about possibility of impeding
apprehension/prosecution by disclosure. The Public Authority just
mentioned the section number and did nothing else. The First Appellate
Authority also did not apply the mind and chose not to give any reasons
for upholding the denial by PIO. The exemption of larger public interest
provided in Section 8(1) is not available to this clause (h). Thus it
has to be decided on facts whether disclosure of charge-sheet will
really obstruct investigation, apprehension or prosecution. The judgment
of the Delhi High Court in W.P.(C) No.3114/2007 – Shri Bhagat Singh Vs.
Chief Information Commissioner & Ors on this aspect is of
relevance, since it deals with the applicability of the Section 8(1)(h)
of the RTI Act 2005: S Ravinder Bhat J specifically notes, “As held in
the preceding part of the judgment, without a disclosure as to how the
investigation process would be hampered by sharing the materials
collected till the notices were issued to the assessee, the respondents
could not have rejected the request for granting information. …”
It can be inferred that there is no
specific provision anywhere prohibiting the disclosure of charge-sheet
and if there disclosure does not affect investigation or prosecution it
can be permitted under RTI, unless there is a public interest against
disclosure. The chargesheets containing charges under Prevention of
Corruption Act, especially against public servants, need to be in public
domain, in public interest.
Citing several decisions the CIC said:
There is no specific provision under any law which state that
charge-sheet is a public document, but there are several judgment of the
Supreme court and High court which clarify that charge sheet is a
public document. Queen-Empress v. Arumugan and Ors ( (1897) ILR 20 Mad
189) has held that any person has an interest in criminal proceeding has
a justify to inspect under section 76 of the Indian Evidence Act. In N
David Vijay Kumar v The Pallavan Gram Bank, Indian Bank in File No.
CIC/SG/A/2012/000189 CIC Mr Shailesh Gandhi ordered disclosure of Charge
sheet ruling out the contention of exemption under Section 8(1)(j).
On the perusal of the RTI application,
the Commission found that the information sought by the applicant are
the part and parcel of the information contain in the charge-sheet
prepared after the completion of the investigation under section 173 of
Cr. P. C. The purpose of the appellant will be served if the copy of the
same would be provided to the appellant. The respondent authority also
agreed to provide the copy of charge sheet.
Considering the provisions of Cr.P.C.,
Evidence Act, RTI Act, erudite judicial pronouncements, certain
transparency practices in CVC, facts and circumstances of the case and
contentions raised, the Commission holds that the charge sheet is a
public document and it shall be disclosed subject to other restrictions
provided under RTI Act. There cannot be a general hard and fast rule
that every charge-sheet could be disclosed or should not be. Each RTI
request for copy of Charge-sheet required to be examined and only
permissible part should be given. The Commission, hence, directed the
respondent to examine the content of charge-sheet and to provide
appellant/… the copy of those portions of charge-sheet, which would
answer the queries raised by appellant in his RTI application, within 3
weeks from the date of receipt of the order.
Source : http://confederationhq.blogspot.in/
