CIC full bench hearing over secret Netaji records on June 5

The full CIC bench, headed by Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and four commissioners, is set to adjudicate in a benchmark Right to Information case. The move follows unsuccessful attempts at resolution by Information Commissioner AN Tiwari on a petition filed by Sayantan Dasgupta against Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), one of the many ministries holding classified files on Bose.

The MHA\\'s line, conveyed by former Home Secretary VK Duggal, is that the disclosure cannot be made for fear of causing unrest in the country, specially in Bose\\'s home state Bengal.

On the other hand, Sayantan Dasgupta, representing Delhi-based Mission Netaji (www.missionnetaji.org) has accused the Ministry of holding back sensitive records which might put a question mark on the Government\\'s attempts to prove Bose\\'s death in Taiwan, overruling the findings of Mukherjee Commission.

"It is important that Indians get to scrutinize all original documents. Only then will it become clear whether or not there has been any sinister design to hide facts," Sayantan said.

Countdown

May 17 2006: The Government dismisses the report of Mukehrjee Commission that the news of Netaji\\'s death in an air crash was a cover for his escape towards the Soviet Union. Home Minister Shivraj Patil later asserts that the previous reports of Shah Nawaz Khan and GD Khosla upholding Netaji\\'s death in the air crash are more reliable.

Shah Nawaz Khan was a Congress MP. GD Khosla, a High Court judge and Indira Gandhi\\'s biographer, and a friend of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru\\'s. Justice MK Mukherjee is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, and a leading criminologist.

22 June 2006: Mission Netaji\\'s Sayantan Dasgupta approaches the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under the RTI Act and seeks copies of all documents (exhibits) relied upon by GD Khosla and Shah Nawaz panels to arrive at their conclusions.

30 June 2006: MHA rejects the appeal saying the disclosure would prejudicially affect sovereignty and integrity of India, relation with foreign states and even lead to incitement of offence.

29 July 2006: Sayantan lodges a complain with the Central Information Commission.

26 March 2006: During the third hearing at the Commission, Home Secretary VK Duggal (since retired) sends a letter saying that papers relating to Netaji\\'s death can not disclosed for fear of causing unrest in the country, specially in his home state Bengal. Commissioner Tiwari decides to refer the matter to the full bench of the Commission.