Disclosure of enquiry Report on alleged Idol Theft in Biraja Temple of Jajpur
9 Jan, 2013On June 5, 2010, Mr. Pradip Pradhan submitted an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to the PIO, Department of Law, Government of Odisha seeking copy of the RDC enquiry Report on alleged idol theft in Biraja Temple of Jajpur district. In response to RTI Application, the PIO intimated on 29.6.10 that disclosure of the requested information would be violative of section 8(1)(c) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature; and 8(1)(h) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; of the RTI Act. Against the decision of the PIO, he made first appeal which was rejected. He challenged the decision in the Information Commission through complaint petition on dt. 13.8.10 which was registered as CC No. 2952/10.
After around 2 years, State Chief Information Commissioner started hearing and the case was heard 6 times. During the hearing, the PIO submitted that there was demand to place the enquiry report in Odisha Legislative assembly. Such request of the Hon’ble Members of the assembly could not be conceded to since the scrutiny of the report is not yet over. It is apprehended that if the contents of the report are disclosed, it may obstruct effective deal of the report and in fact, it may impede the process of further probe and prosecution of offenders which will violate section 8(1)(h) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; of the RTI Act. The Commission agreed with this argument and said that sharing the information with complainant would also cause a breach of privilege of the State Legislature [section 8(1)(c) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature; ].
It needs to be mentioned here that the incident occurred in 2004 and in view large protest and demand to take action against Mr. Prafulla Ghadei, the then Minister who was allegedly involved in this case, Chief Minister directed RDC, Central Division to make an enquiry into the matter. RDC enquired into the matter and produced the report to State Government in the same year. Though 8 years have passed, the Government has neither disclosed the report not any action appears to have been taken against the culprit on the basis of the report. This has raised doubts in the mind of the activists that the State Government is not willing to disclose the report to save the culprits. The applicant intends to challenge the decision of the Commission in Odisha High Court.