Batla House encounter: Information commission stays its own order

The CIC wrote to AIIMS asking not to execute its order to furnish autopsy reports of those killed in the Batla House encounter till the matter is decided by the high court.
Mohd Reyaz Delhi Hardnews

In a surprise move, the Central Information Commission (CIC) asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to withhold the autopsy reports of those killed during the Batla House encounter on September 19, 2008.

In a letter addressed to Prof MC Misra, chief public information officer (CPIO) of the JPN Apex Trauma Centre of AIIMS, LC Singhi, registrar and joint secretary (law) of the CIC asked the CPIO to hold back the order of the commission pertaining to providing autopsy reports of the deceased in the Batla House encounter.

On June 9, hearing the plea of RTI activist, Afroz Alam Sahil, under Right to Information Act, information commissioner, Anupama Dixit, had directed the AIIMS authority to furnish autopsy reports after applying the severance clauses, as reported by Hardnews on July 6 (http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2009/07/3083).

The appellate authority of the AIIMS had accordingly written a letter to the CPIO asking to 'comply with the information commissioner's directives. After a section of the media reported the matter between July 4 and July 6, the CIC seemed to have buckled under pressure.

The letter, written on July 7, immediately after media reported the issue, asked the CPIO of JPNATC to keep the operation of the order in 'abeyance till the matter is decided' by the high court.

Afroz, who was hoping to get the report this time round, is naturally dejected. "It's a mockery of the RTI", he said. He added that the high court judgment was already there when the CIC passed the order on June 9.