News Excerpt:
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has said that no information is available on President Droupadi Murmu returning any decision taken by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers for reconsideration.
More about the news:
- The case pertains to a petition filed by Raj Kapil of Tamil Nadu under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.
- The RTI sought to know the number of times the President had returned a decision or decisions taken by the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers, the Cabinet, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), the Parliament, Union Ministries, and Union agencies.
- He also wanted to know the number of times the President had returned for reconsideration of a decision taken by a State or Union Territory Legislature.
Reply of the Rashtrapati Bhawan:
- The Rashtrapati Bhavan in its reply said no such information was available as regards any decision or decisions taken by the Prime Minister, the Council of Ministers, the Cabinet, the Parliament, the ACC, etc., being returned for reconsideration.
- On the files pertaining to States and Union Territories, the application was transferred online to the “Ministry of Home Affairs”.
- MHA is the nodal Ministry and custodian of records in such matters.
- A similar response was earlier given by the Rashtrapati Bhavan when a student sought to know under the RTI Act the number of times the then President Ram Nath Kovind had returned a decision of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.
- When the applicant filed an appeal before the First Appellate Authority, he received a reply stating that information called for was not available with the President’s Secretariat.
Right to appeal under RTI Act:
- The petitioner can file an appeal under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act within a month before the Officer on Special Duty/Appellate Authority in case he was aggrieved or not satisfied with the reply.
