Letters of support by parties under RTI ambit: CIC

Letters of support by political parties given to the president pledging their support for forming a government at the Centre has been brought under the ambit of Right to Information by the Central Information Commission.

In a recent decision, the CIC held that the information provided to the president by various political parties cannot be treated as one emanating from 'fiduciary relationship' and thus cannot be denied under the Act.

Exercising his Right to Information, Kerala-based advocate T Asaf Ali, in 2007, had asked for a copy of letters given by CPI-M, DMK, RJD and other coalition partners of the United Progressive Alliance to then President A P J Abdul Kalam extending support to Congress leader Manmohan Singh for forming a government at the Centre.

The information was, however, denied by the CPIO. 'These letters were given under fiduciary relationship between the authors of their letter and the president, therefore they come under Section 8(e) of the Right to Information Act,' Nitin Wakankar said in response to the RTI query.

After being denied information from the First Appellate Authority at the President's Secretariat, Ali filed his second appeal before the CIC.

Hearing the appeal, Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah held: 'To come within the ambit of Fiduciary Relationship, trust becomes an inalienable component. The information provided by various political parties cannot be treated as one emanating from Fiduciary Relationship and that makes Section 8 (1) (e) inapplicable.'

Habibullah also directed the CPIO to provide the information to the applicant within 15 days.

According to Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act: 'Information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information.'

'Political parties are independent entities and have a juristic personality of their own. They have no official dealing with the President of India nor do they interact with the President or the President interacts with them in the decision making process.

'The President has acted on the letters submitted by them (political parties) and the power of the President to act upon such letters is discretionary. Hence, the argument that the letters of supporting UPA government by political parties to the President is in a fiduciary capacity is far fetched,' Habibullah said in his order.

He further agreed to the appellant's argument that the authors of these letters have themselves disclosed the content of these letters to the media hence secrecy or fiduciary relationship is not involved.