The Indian Army has told the Delhi High Court that releasing documents related to the Machil fake encounter trial will serve no public interest, HuffPost India reported on Tuesday. A petition seeking information on the trial is an “unwarranted invasion of the privacy” of the accused, and will cause public outrage that will “prejudicially affect the security, sovereignty and integrity of India”, and affect military operations in the state, the Army has claimed.
In 2014, the Indian Army sentenced two of its officers – Colonel Dinesh Pathania and Captain Upendra Singh – and three soldiers – Havaldar Devinder and lance naiks Lakshmi and Arun Kumar – to life in prison for staging the killing of the civilians in North Kashmir’s Machil area in April 2010 and then attempting to blame “Pakistani militants” for their deaths.
In 2017, the Armed Forces Tribunal suspended their life sentences.
Venkatesh Nayak, who filed the Right to Information plea, told the news website that the grounds for denial of information, “seem to be an afterthought aimed at preventing public access to crucial documents that throw light on the events that resulted in the deaths of three civilians at Machil”. Nayak is the coordinator of the Access to Information programme of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
However, the Army reportedly cited exemption from disclosure under Section 8(1)(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, which pertains to cases that are still being investigated or prosecuted.
Nayak moved the Central Information Commission in September 2015, a year after the Army finished prosecuting the case. In an order in November 2016, a bench headed by Information Commissioner Divya Prakash said the commission “finds it inappropriate on the part of the CPIO [Army’s Central Public Information Officer] to have denied the information”.
The Army did not respond to the Central Information Commission’s order to respond to the plea in 15 days. In February 2017, Nayak again wrote to the information panel, which wrote to the Army, directing it to follow its orders.
However, in May 2017, the Army filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court, urging it to set aside the information commission’s order. A month later, the High Court stayed the order but has not announced its final decision on the Army’s petition yet.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!