No need for oath of secrecy by ministers: Moily panel

The second Administrative Reforms Commission has recommended that ministers on assumption of office, may take oath of transparency along with the oath of office, while the requirement of administering the oath of secrecy should be dispensed with.

Oath of secrecy may be substituted by a statutory arrangement and a written undertaking, said the ARC in its report on 'Right to Information: Master Key to Governance' that was submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last Friday.

The Commission, headed by senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily, has also recommended repeal of the Official Secrets Act 123 and amendment in the Indian Evidence Act.

Besides, the Armed Forces should be included in the Second Schedule that includes organisations exempt from the provisions of the RTI Act.

According to the ARC report, released by Moily here today, the existence of the provision of oath of secrecy appears to be a legacy of the colonial era "where the public was subjugated to the government."

A public oath of secrecy at the time of assumption of office is "both unnecessary and repugnant to the principles of democratic accountability, representative government and popular sovereignty."

Addressing a press conference here today, Moily said that the ARC was also in favour of a Whistleblower's Act to protect the insiders who give information.

The ARC prescribed a time limit for keeping the classified information outside the public domain. Documents once classified as 'Top Secret' or 'Secret' should remain so for not more than 30 years, recommended the ARC.

Documents classified as confidential and restricted should remain so for a period not exceeding 10 years. However, the competent classifying officer may authorise continued classification beyond the period prescribed, on grounds of national security and interest.

Public Records Offices should be established as an independent authority in GOI, and all states within six months, by integrating and restructuring the multiple agencies currently involved in record keeping.

As a one time measure, the GOI should earmark 1 per cent of the funds of all flagship programmes for a period of five years for updating records, improving infrastructure, etc., said the ARC.

All government functionaries should be imparted at least one-day training on RTI within a year.

An ARC member told Business Standard that the Commission felt the need for indexing and classifying records in the absence of which some officials tended to harass the people.

A reputed media organisation, seeking to do a report on the efficacy of the RTI, sought some information about some land deals.

"Officials decided to give bundles of useless records to the information seeker and demanded Rs 1.80 lakh as the fee. This made us thinking as to how to stop it," said the member.