By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Tuesday stayed an order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the government to produce all relevant documents pertaining to the appointment of Shivshankar Menon as foreign secretary before it.
"The order of the CIC on May 7 shall be kept in abeyance till further orders," Justice B.D. Ahmed said after going through the government's application seeking the court's direction to quash that order.
The court also issued notices to the CIC and Veena Sikri, a 1971-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, to file their replies by Aug 31.
Sikri had moved the CIC under the RTI Act, seeking information on the appointment of Menon as Foreign Secretary, complaining of gender bias in selection to the key post.
Menon, a 1972-batch IFS officer, superseded 16 officers including Sikri. His name was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Sep 4 last year.
Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the government, submitted that the information sought to be disclosed does not come within the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The documents are not liable to be disclosed in any form or manner either to Sikri or before any other person or authority including the CIC, he said during the arguments.
The CIC had also directed the ministry of external affairs to allow Sikri to make inspection within 15 days of a file on Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) in connection with the appointment of the foreign secretary in November last year.