PIL to publish INA history: HC seeks Centre's stand

The Delhi High Court today sought the Centre's response on a plea seeking immediate publication of the original documents chronicling the history of Indian National Army (INA).

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also sought to know from the Centre about their undertaking in the court that that they intended to publish the works of historian Pratul Chandra Gupta titled "A History of the Indian National Army 1942-1945" patronised by the Government.

The court listed the matter for August 21.

Central government standing counsel Jasmeet Singh submitted that the government would do the needful.

The draft, which traces the evolution of the Azad Hind Fauj led by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose has never been made public, which was just another example of the lack of a comprehensive declassification policy within the government, the plea said.

The court was hearing a plea by Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who has sought directions to concerned ministries to immediately publish the original, unedited, unabridged and un-updated version of Gupta's work.

Roy, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, in his plea argued by senior advocate Soumya Chakraborty, has stated that the entire nation has a right to know about the most glorious chapter of the Indian freedom struggle, about the heroics and sacrifices of the INA and the reason for the mysterious disappearance of Subhash Chandra Bose.

"While the Government of India had no problem in publishing 25 volumes on the role of Indian Armed Forces fighting for the British empire in the Second World War, the most comprehensive historical account of the Indian National Army and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose compiled in the aforesaid works of Gupta was not allowed to be published in 1953, ostensibly under objection of the Ministry of External Affairs, then headed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India," the plea filed through advocate Mohd Asad Khan said.

The document, commissioned in 1950, records the INA's history between 1942-1945.

While this document was declassified some years back, the government has not made any attempt to make even its excerpts public. In fact, the Defence Ministry had refused to make the report public under Right to Information (RTI) on the plea that it would hurt the economic interest of the government which planned to publish the document.

RTI applicant Chandrachur Ghose was forced to submit an affidavit saying the information would only be used by him in his personal capacity.

Ghose later went to CIC, which had allowed his plea. But the government moved the high court challenging the CIC's decision to disclose the information to the RTI applicant.

The CIC's decision was upheld by a single judge of the high court against which the Centre has appealed before a division bench where it is pending.