New Delhi/Haldwani, Sep 28 (UNI) Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices to senior CBI Officers Vineet Vinayak and Gagandeep Gambhir on a contempt petition filed by an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi.
Chaturvedi had earlier worked as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) in AIIMS, Delhi, and a corruption case was investigated by him in the hospital. He was investigating the case related to allegations of financial irregularities in the purchase of certain materials in the AIIMS.
In this connection, Chaturvedi filed a Right to Information (RTI) application in September 2017 to CBI seeking the documents related to the investigation done by CBI.
The then Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Gagandeep Gambhir, who was then Superintendent of Police in CBI, rejected the application on the ground that the federal probe agency falls in the list of exempted organisations under Section 24 (1) of the RTI Act.
Chaturvedi had filed an appeal against the order in November 2017 before Vineet Vinayak who was then Joint Director of CBI. The appeal against the order was also rejected on the same ground.
Chaturvedi moved a contempt petition against the orders passed by both these officers in January 2018 in the Delhi High Court. He submitted that the denial of the information violated orders and directions passed by the Delhi High Court in September 2017 as well as in August 2017, in which the court had clearly passed the orders that organisations covered under Section 24 of the RTI Act, have to supply information related to corruption and human rights violations.
He submitted through his petition before the Delhi High Court that the information sought by him from CBI was related to allegations of corruption and hence CBI was bound to disclose this information to him and so it constituted a contempt of the order of the court.
Delhi High Court Justice Jasmeet Singh after hearing the contempt petition issued notice to CBI officers and fixed the matter for hearing on October 31.
