Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar Nov 10: The Union Government denied information under Right to Information Act about those who have been denied passport since 1990 for their involvement in unlawful activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Disposing of an appeal filed under RTI Act by one Peer Noor-ul-Haq of Srinagar, Ministry of External Affairs said that the information pertains to third parties.
Referring the Section 8(1) (j) of the Act authorities have declined to provide the information. “Therefore the same cannot be ordered to be disclosed in view of the Section of the RTI Act,” says Mukesh Kumar Pardeshi, appellate authority in the ministry in his reply.
Haq had filed an appeal after passport authorities denied to share the information even as it said that “refusal orders” were issued by it against 37 applicants till August 24 this year.
Haq had sought details under Right to Information about the rejection of passports to people on the basis of their direct or indirect involvement in militancy or unlawful activities.
He had filed the query under the RTI after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation filed by him, seeking implementation of the rehabilitation policies for surrendered militants.
In its order, Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magray while closing the PIL at the very threshold had observed that the petitioner has placed copy of the welfare scheme for surrendered militants along with the petition, but no particulars of the persons who have been released so far, are given.
“Whether the concerned persons have approached the official respondents (Secretary External Affairs Ministry and State Government) and what are the rights denied by the respondents are not mentioned,” the court had observed.
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