Govt denies RTIs on agri laws citing court hearings

NEW DELHI: The Centre has cited hearings in the Supreme Court and high courts on the three farms bills and the Niti Aayog Council not having studied a report on amendments to the Essential Commodities Act as reasons to deny information on the these bills to separate RTI applications filed by activists.

Several RTI applications have been filed with the agriculture ministry and Niti Aayog since November 27, when farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh started their protests against the three farm bills.

The farmer bodies are seeking repeal of the three farm bills. The government has ruled out repealing of the laws and said consultations were being held with states and other stakeholders over the past decade.

In his RTI application, Noidabased activist Vikrant Tongad sought inspection of all files related to the farm bills; another activist, Anjali Bhardwaj of Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) wanted to know whether prelegislative consultation on the bills was done. In a reply to Tongad, Ashish Bagde, central public information officer of the department of agriculture cooperation and farmer welfare, said the information sought involves laws challenged in the Supreme Court and high courts. “As such being a sub-judice matter it may not be feasible at this moment to provide the information under section 8 (1) (b) of the RTI Act, 2005,” Bagde said.

Section 8 (1) (b) prohibits sharing of the information which has been “expressly forbidden to be published” by the court or tribunal and where providing such information may constitute contempt of court. “No court has so far prohibited the government from sharing of information on farm bills,” said Nikhil Dey, a member of National Campaign for People’s Right to Information.

Bhardwaj filed two RTI applications. She received the same reply that Tongad did.

Her second RTI application was filed with Niti Aayog on the High Powered Committee of Chief Ministers for Transforming Indian Agriculture, which the Central government claimed, had recommended changes in the Essential Commodities Act. She sought a copy of the committee’s report, details of all meetings of the committee and its minutes. Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said the government should have proactively put information about public consultations in public domain.