New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) The Central Information Commission (CIC) Wednesday directed the President’s Secretariat to give ‘file notings’ related to a letter former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam wrote in 2004 expressing displeasure over some persons listed for Padma awards.
The commission asked the President’s Office to delete all references to individuals and discussion of their merits and demerits from the notings.

In 2004, Kalam had written a ’secret’ note to the then prime minister A.B. Vajpayee expressing displeasure over some persons listed for the Padma awards.

Right to Information (RTI) activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal had asked for a copy of the “complete file notings made at Rashtrapati Bhavan” on the subject.

Interestingly, a copy of that “secret note” has already been provided by the President’s Secretariat to Agrawal in response to another RTI petition.

“We have found that in the discussion the merit of conferring award on various individuals has been discussed in some detail. Disclosure of such information would assuredly amount to invasion of privacy…,” noted Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah in his order.

“….The CPIO F.A. Kidwai will provide to appellant S.C. Agrawal copy of file notings ….. of the impugned file, deleting therefrom all references to individuals and discussion of their merits and demerits,” he directed.

Another Information Commissioner at the CIC, Satyananda Mishra in a recent verdict said: “With the advent of the RTI and increasing scrutiny of the governmental decisions in its wake, it is likely that the process of deciding these (Padma) awards will be questioned by the citizens more and more in future. Therefore, the authorities must strive to lay down, as far as possible, transparent criteria for these nominations and make the selection process more objective.”