Destroyed File: CIC ask PMO to furnish details on Netaji

http://justiceforsu bhas.blogspot. com/

Giving its decision on the vexed issued of a destroyed PMO file on Subhas Chandra Bose's fate, the Central Information Commission has directed the Prime Minister's Office to provide documents sought by Mission Netaji.

"A copy each of page 68/N in File no RTI/219/2006/ PMO and page 151/C of File No 2(64)56-70 PM Vol V (closed) will now be provided to Mission Netaji within one week of issue of this Decision Notice," directed Chief Information Officer Wajahat Habibullah. The Chief Information Officer also handed over to PMO Director Amit Aggarwal copy of a letter by Mission Netaji to Habibullah with the instruction that "this document may be examined ... (and) further information provided to him".

Mission Netaji's letter lists 9 letters/documents exchanged between the PMO and Mukherjee Commission and states that "the key issue is transparency" .

"An evidently secret file concerning a matter of national importance appears to have been destroyed in suspicious circumstances and the PMO is sidestepping the issue. As such, the disclosure of 1 to 9 above will not only be in tune with my original application seeking 'all papers concerning the destruction of file No 12(226)/56-PM' but also serve public interest."

The file in question (No. 12(226)/56-PM titled Investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of Shri Subhas Chandra Bose) was destroyed in 1972 when Khosla Commission of Inquiry was functioning. The destruction was prima facie unlawful. Government procedures don't allow destruction of even unclassified historical papers relating to issues "which gave rise to interest or controversy on the national plane".

File 12(226)/56-PM in all probability was Top Secret, as most papers on Netaji's death are, and yet, the Prime Minister's Office informed Mission Netaji that it was destroyed "during routine process of review/weeding of old records". Government rules regarding "review/weeding of records" are very clear that "files/documents will not be destroyed" in case "an inquiry has been initiated ... by a Commission of Inquiry".

The destruction can only take place after the submission of the report by the Commission and with due approval of the head of the department. It is still not known who ordered the destruction of this file and why. However, it has been rumoured that the file was maintained by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and was destroyed on orders of PN Haksar, the Secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In 1970s, the matter was brought to the notice of High Court judge GD Khosla, a friend of Pandit Nehru's, but he chose to remark in his report that "no case of concealment of evidence had been made out against the Government" and that file was destroyed "in the ordinary course of routine according to which old and unwanted files are destroyed to lighten the burden of the record rooms".

On the other hand, Mukherjee Commission (1999-2005) opined that the file could have been of "great assistance" in resolving the matter. Unlike Khosla, whose inquiry betrayed evidence of partiality and fraudulence, Mukherjee, a former Supreme Court judge, almost indicted the Government for not parting with details about the file's destruction.

http://justiceforsu bhas.blogspot. com/