The first cabinet meeting of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF cabinet. Onmanorama/File photoThiruvananthapuram: Refusing to make the cabinet decisions public, the LDF government in Kerala on Thursday said that the decisions made in cabinet meetings do not fall under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act.
In a significant order that was expected to make government businesses more transparent, Kerala Information Commission had ordered last month that all decisions by the state government, once finalized in the cabinet, should come under the RTI Act.
The government has now decided to move the High Court against the Information Commission's order.
The government's stance is that the decisions taken in the cabinet are merely steps proposed which will be finalized only when they get implemented.
The government has informed state chief information commissioner Vinson M. Paul that the cabinet will not make its decisions public.
The LDF government's decision is also against the Central Information Commission (CIC) rule which stated in March this year that the union and state cabinets are 'public authorities' liable to answer public questions addressed to them under the RTI Act.
Unfortunate: RTI activist
Terming the government's move as unfortunate, RTI activist D. B. Binu said, “It was the LDF that demanded transparency in governance when the previous UDF government was in power. Now, they are denying information to the public. The public owes an explanation from the government on this issue.”
Vinson M. Paul had issued the order last month while disposing of a complaint by Binu against the decision of the state government, which denied him copies of the previous Oommen Chandy cabinet decisions taken from January 1 to March 12 under the RTI Act.
The commission had also suggested that the government publish the cabinet decisions on its official website.
The order by the state information commission in June grabbed headlines as the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government had done away with the practice of convening press conference after cabinet meeting.
(With agency inputs)
