In a blow to an indicted former R&AW official seeking detail of the agency's snooping software,the Delhi High Court has set aside the CICs directive to the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to disclose information,which he claimed was necessary to prove his innocence in the espionage case. Asking the CIC to hear the matter afresh,Justice S Muralidhar held the Commission erred in passing the order without hearing R&AW contentions,being the third party for which the C-DAC developed the software under a contract. In as much as the software of the Project Anveshak has been developed exclusively for the R&AW,the question of disclosure of any such information had to be decided only after hearing the R&AW, the court noted further,observing that the intelligence agency figured among the list of the organisations usually exempted under the purview of the RTI Act. Last May,the CIC had allowed the RTI plea of former Director (Computers) R&AW,Brig Ujjal Dasgupta (retd),asking the C-DAC to provide him information relating to the development of software Anveshak for R&AW. Lodged in Tihar Jail following his arrest in 2006 on charges of passing on classified information to American diplomat Rosanna Minchew,Dasgupta had sought details about the way the software was transferred to R&AW,the agency responsible for installation on the premises of RAW and other such details. He contended the information would help him defending himself in a court of law. The C-DAC,however,sought the immunity of exemption clause of the RTI Act and said the Cabinet Secretariat had also communicated to it that disclosure of any information in relation to Project Anveshak would be against national interest and the security of the state. But,in a judgment last May,Information Commissioner Annapurna Dixit failed to find favour with the C-DACs arguments and said C-DAC,being a public authority in custody of information,which is completely unrelated with the confidential,sensitive data relating to operational methodology as referred by R&AW,was under an obligation to divulge it. Adjudicating the appeal by C-DAC,Justice Muralidhar differed from the views of the CIC and noted that when the information pertained to a third party under the Act,it was not a right procedure to decide an application without eliciting response from the affected party. Once the CIC acknowledges that the information sought pertains to a third party,in this case,R&AW,then without notice to such third party and hearing its views in the matter,the CIC cannot proceed further in the matter, said the court. The CIC has now been asked to dispose of the matter within four months after issuing notice to R&AW,hearing their contentions. It will also have to take into account whether R&AW was completely exempt from the purview of the RTI Act in the present case.
