Annual confidential report of Army officer not open to RTI:CIC

[sidmis]

Annual confidential report of Army officer not open to RTI:CIC
AS reported in Economic Times 10 Jun, 2008, 2144 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has held that contents of the annual confidential report (ACR) of an Army officer cannot be revealed under the Right to Information Act.

In a decision, the apex transparency panel upheld the refusal of information relating to the ACR of all the 1972 batch engineering services officers by the Defence Ministry.

"The refusal of information by the public information officer with regard to ACRs is upheld," Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said.

The Commission, however, allowed an appeal of Brigadier Deepak Grover against the decision of Defence Ministry to deny information on his RTI plea relating to other issues like the weightage given to officers considered by the Selection Board in September, 2005.

After the hearing on the matter, the Ministry's submission that disclosure of the information sought by the applicant would compromise national security was rejected by the CIC as "afterthought to evade answer than substantive ground for conducting any detriment to national security."

The Ministry had earlier denied the details to Grover stating that the information was kept in fiduciary (custodian) capacity and larger interest did not warrant disclosure.

Partly allowing the appeal, the Commission directed the Ministry to disclose all the details without disclosing contents of the ACRs to Brigadier Grover within 15 days.


Annual confidential report of Army officer not open to RTI:CIC - Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times

[bahl_ajay]

Dear Sidharth,

There is good news for Army Officials seeking details of their ACRs. With the new DOP&T circular No. 10/20/2006-IR dated 21 Sep 07 coming into force even the ACRs can be looked into provided the Public Authority is satisfied that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the protected interest. The details of PA nominated for this purpose by the Army Headquarters can be had from the RTI Cell, Army HQrs, Sena Bhawan, New Delhi.