CIC asks govt to disclose details of Land Ordinance

Exercising his right to informatio, Venkatesh Nayak had in January last year sought from the President’s secretariat photo copies of all materials on the basis of which the President had promulgated the land ordinance and the relevant file notings.

 The application was then transferred to the Department of Land Resources (DoLA), which said the requisite information was not available with it. The query was also forwarded to the legislative department of the central government.

However, the legislative department said the information sought falls under the administrative ambit of the Ministry of Rural Development and records relating to the promulgation of the ordinance would be available with DoLA.

Aggrieved over denial of information, he filed an appeal with the CIC in May 2015. In the course of hearing last week, Information Commissioner Sudhir Bhargava cited a response by the legislative department and said the records relating to the promulgation of the ordinance would be available with the department of land resources.

In view of this, the Commission directs the respondent (DoLA) to provide information sought to the complainant within a period of four weeks, he said. The Centre had promulgated land ordinance for the first time in December 2014. It was repromulgated twice – in March and May  2015 – as the government could not get a law passed.

 In March 2016, the government had decided not to repromulgate the ordinance apparently due to stiff opposition from the opposition on the issue. A Joint Committee of Parliament is examining the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015.