CIC directs President Secretariat to disclose info on black money

The Central Information Commission has directed the President's Secretariat to disclose details of correspondence among various ministries and Delhi Police related to black money.

The order came following an appeal by an RTI applicant who had sought to know the action taken report on the letters written by him to Finance and External Affairs ministries among other public authorities in connection with the illegal wealth stashed abroad.

During the hearing, the Appellant also submitted that he was mainly interested to get from the office of the President Secretariat the file notings concerning their correspondence with the Banking Division, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of External Affairs and the Delhi Police.

"It seems the Appellant had written a number of letters to various authorities regarding the Indian citizens illegally depositing black money in various foreign banks...The Central Public Information Officer (of the President Secretariat) had provided him with some information while advising him to approach the remaining authorities to know about the action taken by each one of them.

"After carefully considering the facts of the case, we do not see any problem in disclosing this information," Chief Information Commissioner Satyanand Mishra said in his order.

The CIC further directed the CPIO to provide information within 10 working days including photocopies of the file notings from the relevant files in which his letters had been processed and correspondence made with the Banking Division, Ministry of Finance, MEA and the Delhi Police.