[Assam] Destroyed File: CIC ask PMO to furnish details on Netaji

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

Destroyed File: CIC ask PMO to furnish details on Netaji

http://justiceforsubhas.blogspot.com/

Giving its  decision on the vexed issued of a destroyed PMO file on Subhas Chandra Bose's  fate, the Central Information Commission has directed the Prime Minister's  Office to provide documents sought by Mission Netaji.

"A copy each of  page 68/N in File no RTI/219/2006/PMO and page 151/C of File No 2(64)56-70 PM  Vol V (closed) will now be provided to Shri Anuj Dhar within one week of issue  of this Decision Notice," directed Chief Information Officer Wajahat Habibullah.  The Chief Information Officer also handed over to PMO Director Amit Aggarwal  copy of a letter by Dhar to Habibullah with the instruction that "this document  may be examined ... (and) further information provided to him".

Dhar's  letter lists 9 letters/documents exchanged between the PMO and Mukherjee  Commission and states that "the key issue is transparency".

"An evidently  secret file concerning a matter of national importance appears to have been  destroyed in suspicious circumstances and the PMO is sidestepping the issue. As  such, the disclosure of 1 to 9 above will not only be in tune with my original  application seeking 'all papers concerning the destruction of file No  12(226)/56-PM' but also serve public interest."

The file in question (No.  12(226)/56-PM titled Investigation into the circumstances leading to the  death of Shri Subhas Chandra Bose) was destroyed in 1972 when Khosla  Commission of Inquiry was functioning. The destruction was prima facie unlawful.  Government procedures don't allow destruction of even unclassified historical  papers relating to issues "which gave rise to interest or controversy on the  national plane".

File 12(226)/56-PM in all probability was Top Secret, as  most papers on Netaji's death are, and yet, the Prime Minister's Office informed  Mission Netaji that it was destroyed "during routine process of review/weeding  of old records". Government rules regarding "review/weeding of records" are very  clear that "files/documents will not be destroyed" in case "an inquiry has been  initiated ... by a Commission of Inquiry".

The destruction can only take  place after the submission of the report by the Commission and with due approval  of the head of the department. It is still not known who ordered the destruction  of this file and why. However, it has been rumoured that the file was maintained  by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and was destroyed on orders of PN  Haksar, the Secretary to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

In 1970s, the  matter was brought to the notice of High Court judge GD Khosla, a friend of  Pandit Nehru's, but he chose to remark in his report that "no case of  concealment of evidence had been made out against the Government" and that file  was destroyed "in the ordinary course of routine according to which old and  unwanted files are destroyed to lighten the burden of the record  rooms".

On the other hand, Mukherjee Commission (1999-2005) opined that  the file could have been of "great assistance" in resolving the matter. Unlike  Khosla, whose inquiry betrayed evidence of partiality and fraudulence,  Mukherjee, a former Supreme Court judge, almost indicted the Government for not  parting with details about the file's destruction.

http://justiceforsubhas.blogspot.com/



       
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