PM Modi Foreign Visit Records Will Not Be Public: Records of PM Modi's foreign visits will not be made public. Delhi High Court has canceled the order of Central Information Commission (CIC) and banned the making public the records of PM Modi's foreign trips. The court said that giving this information could put national security in danger.
In fact, the Central Information Commission had directed the Indian Air Force to disclose detailed records related to the foreign trips of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Hearing the case, Justice Amit Mahajan of Delhi High Court said that the RTI applicant, retired Commodore Lokesh Batra, had sought details about Special Flight Returns (SFR) Part I and Part II. Which includes details of the aircraft, aircrew, entire entourage, and names of all Special Protection Group (SPG) people traveling with the PM. The court said that giving this information could put national security in danger. Also, PM's life and physical safety may be in danger.
Delhi High Court said in its order that the possible impact of such disclosure on national security and the security system present with the Prime Minister cannot be ignored. The High Court said, such assessment mainly comes under the jurisdiction of those agencies which have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the security of the Prime Minister and this court cannot make its own assessment in place of the assessment of capable security agencies.
Disclosure from RTI application
Let us tell you that this matter has come to light from an RTI application filed by retired Commodore Lokesh K Batra in June 2018. He had asked for details of foreign tours of Indian Prime Ministers by Indian Air Force aircraft between April 2013 and June 2018. The Air Force gave information about some tours, but refused to reveal the details of SFR Part-I and Part-II. The force's Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) cited security concerns and also cited exemptions for information held in a fiduciary capacity. CIC directed the Air Force to provide certified copies of the existing and necessary SFR-II records after removing the names of the security personnel. Because of this the CPIO had to go to the High Court.
Court canceled the order
However, the court said that the mere fact that government money has been spent on the PM's foreign tours does not in itself justify the disclosure of information that could compromise the security arrangements made for such tours. The Court concluded that the CIC had committed error in directing the disclosure of SFR-II and, therefore, quashed the order.
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