Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh)
In a landmark verdict delivered here on Tuesday, MP State Information Commission ruled that Medico-legal and medical reports in criminal cases cannot be refused under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
The commission in the order accessed by freepressjournal.in, said unlike normal medical cases, they are not prepared at the instance of the patient but to record injuries inflicted on a person, to be used by courts in criminal proceedings and hence are not held in fiduciary relation with the patient and that refusal of such information under Section 8(1)(J) of RTI Act is unsustainable.
"In this case husband had sought sonography report of his wife but the PIO, Chief Medical Officer, had denied the same on the grounds of personal info under section 8 (1) (J), said Rahul Singh, the MPSIC information commissioner in the order.
Singh said that the PIO overlooked the provision of section 8 (1)(J) which says that info which cannot be denied to the Parliament and state legislature, shall not be denied to any person.
When confronted by Singh, the CMO admitted that he can’t deny the info to State Legislature.
Refusal of such information under Section 8(1)(J) of RTI Act is unsustainable, Singh said.
The commission in the order directed Dr Manoj Pandey, the Public Information Officer, CMHO Balaghat for offering the desired information under RTI free of cost within five days after receiving the order.
“After scrutiny of the documents in the case, it seems that refusal of information in the matter was against norms and the desired information should have been provided to the applicant by the PIO,” claimed Singh.
