Don't disclose predecessor's letter to Prez: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla has refused to give consent for disclosure of the controversial letter by his predecessor N Gopalaswami to the President recommending his removal.

RTI activist S C Agrawal had sought the copy of the letter from the President's Secretariat, which refused to disclose the matter, prompting him to reach the Central Information Commission with his plea.

The CIC in its November 9 order had directed the President's Secretariat to seek the consent of Chawla before disclosing it to Agrawal.

"In pursuance to the directions of the CIC, the matter was taken up with third party Navin Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner. The Chief Election Commissioner is of the considered view that the letter/report sent by N Gopalaswami to the President may not be disclosed to the applicant under the RTI Act," the Central Public Information Officer of the secretariat informed Agrawal.

In its reply, the CPIO said taking into consideration the relevant material, views expressed by Navin Chawla and the statutory requirement under RTI Act, the information "does not merit disclosure."

"No copy of objections from Navin Chawla has been provided to me which may make clear about exemption-clause(s) referred (and accepted by the CPIO at President's secretariat) for not disclosing information/documents as sought in my RTI petition," Agrawal said in his new appeal against the reply.

President's Secretariat had refused to give copy of the letter which had hogged limelight as it was alleged that Gopalaswami had recommended to the President Chawla's removal from office for alleged "partisan" functioning.

Agrawal had sought the copy of Gopalaswami's letter, which was rejected by the President's Secretariat saying its disclosure would be an invasion of privacy. It had invoked the related Clause Section 8 (1) (e) of the RTI to deny the same.

Agrawal had argued that contents of the letter were already in the media and hence there was no reason to claim "invasion of privacy".