Afzal Guru’s execution records: Tihar to approach High Court

The records of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging are unlikely to be made public soon as Tihar prison has decided to challenge before the Delhi High Court the CIC order to disclose the documents.

The communication in this regard has been sent to Aligarh- based RTI applicant Paras Nath Singh by Director General of Prisons at Tihar. ‘It is informed that Prison Department is going to file an appeal before the High Court of Delhi against the decision of CIC,’ Sunil Kumar, Law Officer (Prisons) said. Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu had directed the Tihar authorities to make public specific records related to the execution of Guru on 26 September. The Commissioner had given 10 days to the authorities to comply with the order.

According to the legal position, Tihar authorities should have either procured a stay from the High Court through a writ petition or provided the information.

‘They (Tihar) cannot stay the operation of CIC order which is binding on them unless they get the stay from the High Court. It has been more than a month that they neither went to high court nor complied with the CIC order,’ Singh said.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) had directed the country’s largest prison Tihar to make public Guru’s death warrant along with copies of communication sent to his family informing about the date of execution.

Convicted for his role in the December 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament, 34-year-old Guru was hanged on 9 February, 2013. 

In his stern order, Acharyulu had said any RTI application (in this case seeking details of Guru’s execution) ‘cannot be rejected lock, stock and barrel without application of mind and citing exemption under Section 8 without justifying the defence’.