I’m an arbiter not activist: Habibullah

New Delhi: Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has said that the government had proposed amendments in the Right to Information (RTI) Act to exempt file notings and cabinet papers from access by citizens without consulting the commission.

Habibullah also clarified that he didn't criticise the proposed amendments as he was "an arbiter and not an activist."

"Those amendments were proposed without consulting the commission and to that we had taken objection and we have been in touch with the government thereafter," Habibullah, who heads the five-member Central Information Commission, said on the first anniversary of the enactment of the RTI.

"My mandate is to work only according to the RTI Act itself. As far as the commission is concerned it's the objective of the act to bring about accountability and transparency and that in fact is our entire effort to see that accountability and transparency are there," Habibullah told CNN-IBN’s Karan Thapar in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday evening.

The proposed amendment that envisages barring "file notings" – crucial to the official decision-making process – from access by citizens has been criticised as a retrograde step that defeats the very purpose of the RTI law.

"My mandate is to implement the Act as it is. It's not for me to start commenting on the contents of the Act - what the Act is like or what it is not like. But I do know that as the Act is at present it talks about accountability and transparency. That's the objective of the Act," Habibullah added.

Asked why unlike some fellow commissioners, he didn't criticise the government's proposed amendment to exempt "file notings" on official papers, he said that this was not part of his job.

The RTI Act seeks to bring greater accountability and transparency in governance of the country by providing citizens access to all government records except in those cases, which affect national security.

Habibullah admitted that the first year of the RTI Act has been "a learning process for the commission" and said that he didn't want the RTI to develop into "a confrontation between one section of society and another section of society".

Watch the entire interview on Devil’s Advocate at 2030 hrs (IST) on Sunday only on CNN-IBN.