ICAI vs Arun Giri - Second Appeal - RTI

Have filed appeal with Central Information Commission ( CIC ) against ICAI 's denial of my RTI request to access minutes of Central Council meetings.
Both the PRO as well as Appellate Authority of ICAI rejected my RTI plea on grounds that the information sought was ' Confidential. ' Quite shocking that our Council, that ought to be the standard bearers of corporate governance, does not want to be transparent about its own functioning! What does it have to hide???? Well, my reply in the first appeal to Appellate Authority was as follows:

From: Arun Anandagiri
Date: Mar 2, 2010 2:09 AM
Subject: Appeal under RTI Act
To: npsingh@icai.org

Dear Mr. Singh,

As prescribed under the RTI Act, please find below my appeal to the rejection of RTI application by ICAI.

Facts of Case:

I had requested for minutes of council meetings held from January to November 2009. The same request has been rejected by ICAI on grounds of 'confidentiality' . With regards to the same, I would like to prefer an appeal on the following grounds:

1. Sec. 8 of RTI Act clearly states the 10 instances where an RTI application can be disallowed. The main grounds of disallowance being national security, commercial or trade secret, cabinet papers and personal information … Very Clearly, ICAI ‘s rejection of my application does not fall within any of the sub sections of Sec 8 of RTI Act.

2. ICAI has been established under an Act of Parliament and hence is accountable to not only the members of the Institute, but also the public at large. Since the

ICAI ‘s main responsibility is that of an accounting regulator, the public at large has every right to know about its functioning.

3. 32 out of 40 Central Council members of ICAI are elected by the members directly through general election. Any elected body ought to be accountable to its members who elect them. In this case, the members of ICAI deserve to know the stand that their elected members are taking in the Council vis a vis important issues concerning the profession. Accessing the minutes of the Central Council meeting is the only way to do the same and keep a check on the performance of Central Council.

4. All the discussions and deliberations of the Central Council are matters of public concern and interest and hence far outweigh any ‘ confidentiality ‘ concerns being espoused by the Institute in rejecting my RTI application. To buttress this point, I am reproducing sub section 2 of Section 8 of RTI Act:

“ Notwithstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 nor any of the exemptions permissible in accordance with sub-section (1), a public authority may allow access to information, if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. “



I am hopeful that after considering the aforementioned points, my appeal under RTI Act would be allowed. Please find attached ICAI ‘s response to my request.

I will also separately courier all the documents to your office. But please be advised that the RTI Act very clearly permits electronic communication.



Regards,

Arun Anandagiri, FCA

Assistant Editor, Bloomberg UTV

Parijaat House, 1076,

Dr E Moses Road, Worli Naka,

Mumbai - 400018

Yet my RTI appeal was rejected , leaving me with no option but to appeal to CIC. We will soon know if ICAI can hide behind the veil of ' confidentiality '.