Madhya Pradesh Government has declined to share details of meetings of civil services board that decides on the postings of bureaucrats, saying they were confidential and barred under the RTI Act.
As per rules, all States should have a civil services board to decide on transfers and postings of bureaucrats-- mainly officers of Indian Administrative Service , Indian Police Service and Indian Forest Service. The board is mandated to decide on the transfer of a civil servant before completion of his or her fixed tenure.
Anti-corruption activist Ajay Dubey had filed an RTI to know the details of proceedings of board during the months of July, August and September 2017.
The State in its reply said the information consisted of communication between the state Govt and the Centre, which is confidential in nature and it could not be shared. It cited Section 8 (1) (j) of the transparency law to decline the information.
The section bars ‘personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information’.
Dubey stated that the service rules, however, mandate the civil services board to submit an annual report on January 1 to the Central Gernment about the date of the meetings held by them.