The Central Information Commission has directed the Army to disclose if any such inquiry ever took place as per records and disclose the information as per provisions of the RTI Act.
The case relates to activist S C Agrawal who sought to know from the Army if "some extra-casualties in the Indian Army occurred at warsite during Indo-Pak Kargil-war in/around the year 1999 because of a defiant move of a TV reporter who insisted on using a flashlight for the TV coverage in the night resulting in guiding Pakistani Army for the exact location to be bombed?"
He also asked if any enquiry took place in this regard, its report and other related details. The Army has refused to give any details saying "request amounts to seeking clarifications and investigations and are based on mere hypothetical assumptions/heresay" and is not an "information" defined under the RTI Act. Information Commissioner M L Sharma agreed with this point of view and asked Agrawal to make the queries specific.
Agrawal then limited it to three questions: Was an enquiry ordered in the incident? If yes, copy of report of the enquiry committee, if any and name of the concerned TV reporter and the TV channel associated with the coverage. After this the Commissioner ordered the application sent back to the Army to revisit the case on the basis of pruned application and "disclose information as per provisions of the RTI Act".
