Last year, CDS Gen. Bipin Rawat had made a presentation to the government making a pitch for defence services to be exempted from the Act stating that none of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are under its purview and defence services, being even more sensitive, should be fully exempted too, officials said.

If Armed Forces are withdrawn from the ambit of the RTI Act, not only will discrepancies in defence procurements, promotions etc get swept under the carpet but it would also block information regarding the personnel’s service and pensioner issues.

An association of ex-servicemen, family pensioners and next-of-kin of the armed forces personnel who laid down their lives for the country and were recognized by governments, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against any consideration by the government to remove the armed forces from the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI).

“The RTI has remained a powerful tool with the veterans and serving community and their families to obtain information and documents concerning their service and pensioner issues, and also to move the authorities into action with respect to routine grievances,” Brig. Kartar Singh (Retd), president of the Indian Ex-Services League (IESL), said in a letter dated May 24 while referring to reports that the government planned to remove the defence services from the ambit of RTI Act 2005. “It (RTI Act) has ensured maximum transparency in official establishments dealing with such cases. Even innocuous documents such as medical board proceedings concerning disabled soldiers and old service records of veterans are only made available through the RTI Act.”

“In fact, the introduction of transparency through the RTI Act has resulted in a massive reduction of litigation wherein many issues get resolved after disclosure under the Act, thereby obliterating the requirement of approaching Courts” Brig. Kartar Singh (Retd) Indian Ex-Services League (IESL)

Requesting that defence services are not be placed in Schedule 2 of the RTI Act, 2005, the letter said adequate protection is already available in Sections 8 and 9 of the Act to “hold back information related to operational and security-related issues.”

“In fact, the introduction of transparency through the RTI Act has resulted in a massive reduction of litigation wherein many issues get resolved after disclosure under the Act, thereby obliterating the requirement of approaching Courts,” Brig. Singh stated in the letter.

While the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the three Service Chiefs are Patrons of IESL, the Defence Minister is its Patron-in Chief.

Last year, CDS Gen. Bipin Rawat had made a presentation to the government making a pitch for defence services to be exempted from the Act stating that none of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are under its purview and defence services, being even more sensitive, should be fully exempted too, officials said. “There is no decision as yet by the Government on the issue,” a defence source said.