RTI Court Decision: MEA told to reveal info on intl court nomination

[Sajib Nandi]

Reported by Deccanherald.com on June 28, 2012
MEA told to reveal info on intl court nomination

CIC rejects ministry’s plea that it is protecting strategic interest

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has rejected the Ministry of External Affairs’ (MEA) plea that India’s strategic interests could be hurt if the information regarding nomination of Justice Dalveer Bhandari as India’s candidate to the International Court of Justice was revealed.

Justice Bhandari was elected as a judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month. He has been a senior Supreme Court judge since 2005 and will serve till 2018 in the ICJ based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Hearing an appeal filed by noted Right to Information (RTI) activist Subhash C Agrawal challenging the denial of information, the transparency panel directed the Indian National Group of Permanent Court of Arbitration to provide details to him.

To a query if the MEA ever sought the approval of the prime minister or the Prime Minister’s Office for recommending an ex-legal advisor or some other officer to the Indian chapter of Permanent Council of Arbitration, the Centre claimed that since the issue involved dealings with foreign countries, disclosure of information could not be made.

“The appellant rebutted this argument pointing out that whether approval was sought for recommending ex-legal advisor from PM/PMO or such approval was given cannot be said to affect India’s strategic interest. The public information officer (PIO) claimed that revealing such information would have affected the canvassing for the Indian candidate. He further claimed that the electoral strategy would be affected by releasing this information.

“After a long discussion the Commission is not able to see any evidence for the reservations expressed by the PIO in revealing this information. No cogent arguments have been advanced for justifying the denial of information,” Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said, directing the MEA’s PIO to disclose the details by July 10.

With regard to the questions seeking complete and detailed information on the approval of any other authority for recommendation made to the India chapter of the Permanent Council of Arbitration (PCA) for a post at the International Court of Justice, and if there has been some instance when Indian Government did not accept the recommendation of the Indian chapter of the PCA for a post at ICJ, the panel directed for disclosure of the required information before July 5.