Were the views of the Chief Economic Advisor and the Finance Minister taken into consideration before announcing demonetisation? The Reserve Bank of India feels this query cannot be answered under the Right to Information Act for it does not comes under the definition of information under the transparency law.
“Query is in the nature of seeking opinion from CPIO which is not defined as information as per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act,” the RBI said in response to an RTI query.
Asked whether the information sought will fall under “seeking opinion” from the CPIO, former Chief Information Commissioner A N Tiwari said, “No. It does not. It is a fact sought by an RTI applicant. The CPIO cannot say an opinion has been sought from him”.
This Is Not the First Refusal
“How it can be called seeking opinion? Whether someone was consulted or not is a matter of record. Had the question been that should views be taken then it would mean taking opinion,” former Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said, expressing surprise at the response of RBI Central Public Information Officer.
The definition of information covers “any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force”.
The query was also sent to the Prime Minister's Office and the Finance Ministry but it remained unanswered even after 30 days of filing of the RTI application.
The monetary policy regulator also did not disclose if the decision to demonetise currency notes worth Rs 20 lakh crore was opposed by any official or minister, saying the information sought is "hypothetical" in nature.
This is not the first time the apex bank has denied information regarding a few aspects of the controversial move. It recently refused to give reasons behind the demonetisation move. It also refused to give any details about the time it will take to replenish the currency notes.
Earlier, it had denied to Mumbai-based RTI Activist Anil Galgali information about distribution of currency to banks between 9 and 19 November citing Section 8(1)(g) of the RTI Act.
The central bank did not give any reason as to how this section would apply in the case of information sought by Galgali.
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