Plea seeking direction to publish classified files on Netaji

A petition was today filed in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Cabinet Secretary to officially publish all 39 classified files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose by de-classifying them.
The petition was filed by advocate V Ramesh.
The petitioner claimed that he had sought details on Bose under the RTI Act. But authorities were not disclosing the details. Hence he filed the petition.
The petitioner submitted the previous UPA government had declined to disclose the files as disclosure of the nature and content of the documents would hurt the sentiments of people at large and could evoke widespread reaction. Besides, diplomatic relations with friendly countries could also be adversely affected if the documents were disclosed, he submmitted quoting the government.

However, the present Home minister Rajnath Singh had demanded during the Lok Sabha election campaign that the government should make public the records related to the freedom figher, the petitioner said.
The Prime Minister's Office in a recent RTI reply accepted that there were 41 files related to Bose, of which two had been declassified, but refused to disclose them taking a position similar to that of the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government.