NEW
DELHI | PTITHU, 29 DEC 2016 17:30 IST
Fifty days after the government
announced that these notes would cease to be legal tender, RBI feels that the
reasons behind the announcement cannot be made public.
Why
were Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes demonetised by the government? Fifty days after
the government announced that these notes would cease to be legal tender,
Reserve Bank of India feels that the reasons behind the sudden announcement cannot
be made public.
The
monetary policy regulator also refused to give any details about the time it
will take to replenish the currency notes.
"The
query is in the nature of seeking future date of an event which is not defined
as information as per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act," RBI said in response
to an RTI query. The Bankers' Bank refused to disclose reasons behind the
demonetisation of about Rs 20 lakh crore of currency in the country citing
Section 8(1)(a) of the Right to Information Act.
The
section states, "Information, disclosure of which would prejudicially
affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic,
scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or
lead to incitement of an offence."
Denying
the information sought in the RTI application, the RBI did not give any reasons
as to how exemption would apply in the given case as the decision was already
taken and there was no way that disclosure of information would have fit in any
of the reasons cited in section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act.
"The
clause of public interest would apply where exemption clause applies on the
information sought by an applicant. In the present case, the information sought
does not attract any exemption clause," former Central Information
Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi told PTI.
He said
law is very clear that when a public authority rejects to disclose an
information it must give clear reasons as to how the exemption clause would
apply in the given case. Recently, it had refused to allow access to minutes of
meetings held to decide on the issue of demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500
notes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.
Responding
to an RTI application filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak, the Banker's Bank refused
to disclose the minutes of the crucial meetings of Central Board of Directors
on the issue of demonetisation citing section 8(1)(a) of the transparency law.
Nayak
said he will appeal against the decision, adding, while confidentiality prior
to the making of the demonetisation decision is understandable, continued
secrecy after the implementation of the decision is difficult to understand
when crores of Indians are facing difficulties due to the shortage of cash in
the economy.
He said
the refusal to disclose the minutes of the board meeting where the decision was
taken is perplexing to say the very least. Former Information Commissioner
Shailesh Gandhi also underlined that RBI has created an in-house
"disclosure policy" which is against the letter and spirit of the RTI
Act.
Gandhi has also filed a complaint before
Central Information Commission against RBI for adopting the policy.
PTI