By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Friday suspended the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) order to Delhi Police to provide to an RTI activist a copy of a forensic laboratory’s report on CDs allegedly involving senior advocate Shanti Bhushan.
Issuing the order to Delhi Police, a bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi also issued a notice, returnable Feb 24, 2012, to Subhash Chandra Agrawal, an RTI activist who had sought the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) report on the allegedly doctored CDs of a conversation between senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and former SP member Amar Singh.
Arguing that the information sought by the RTI applicant cannot be disclosed as the matter is sub judice, Additional Solicitor General A.S. Chandhiok said the closure report on the investigation about the authenticity of the CDs is yet to be accepted by the trial court.
He also argued that a petition filed by Bhushan seeking further investigation by Delhi Police is also pending.
Using the RTI Act, Agrawal had sought information about the allegedly doctored “Bhushan CDs”, including details of the two CFSL reports and the report of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Department of Information Technology and the officers who had tested the CDs and made the report.
On Nov 14, the CIC had directed Delhi Police and the CFSL to provide copies of all the forensic reports related to the allegedly doctored CDs to Agrawal within 20 days of the order. The commission had rejected the contention of the police that they were exempted from providing the information sought under section 8(1) (h) of the RTI Act.
The CDs allegedly contain a conversation between Team Anna member Shanti Bhushan as well as Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh about influencing a judge.