Make public death warrant of Guru: CIC

The Central Information Commission has directed the country's largest prison Tihar to make public death warrant of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru along with copies of communication sent to his family informing about the date of execution.
34-year-old Mohammad Afzal Guru was convicted for his role in the December 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament and hanged on February 9, 2013.
In a stern order, Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu said any RTI application (in this case seeking details of Afzal Guru's execution) cannot be rejected lock, stock and barrel without application of mind and citing exemption under Section 8 without justifying the defence.

The Commission directed the Tihar authorities to provide to RTI applicant Paras Nath Singh certified copy of death warrant for the execution of Guru.
The case relates to Singh's application seeking among other details death warrant and video recording of Guru's execution. The Tihar authorities refused to provide any information, saying it would endanger national security.
"The Commission finds this rejection of RTI application in toto is without any application of mind and without examining each and every point, separating the information that can be given from one that cannot be given using doctrine of severability provided under section 10," Sridhar said.

He said neither the CPIO nor First Appellate Authority of Tihar gave any reasoning for claiming exemption under section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act.
"The Commission suggests that the public authorities, their CPIOs and Appellate Authorities should desist from rejecting the RTI applications lock, stock and barrel without giving any reason or justification the exemption claimed which compels the applicant to approach the Commission," he said.