The Hon'ble Delhi High Court has finally held in Union of India Vs Veena Kohli that the RTI Act would very much apply to central govt bodies located in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
For those who may be wondering, all departments of the central govt including the MoD already have thier PIOs under the RTI Act properly in place in the State of J&K.
The bad press for the organisation on the issue is uncalled for since the Army cannot be blamed for the action of a particular officer in deciding to file such a petition in the HC. In fact, I am sure that the MoD and the top brass at the Army HQrs would not have been even apprised of filing of this petition against the well reasoned and common-sense based CIC verdict though a petition in the name of Union of India through the Defence Secretary could not have been legally initiated without explicit consent of the Ministry, more so, since the said petition was against the national policy pertaining to RTI Act which has been adopted by all Ministries.
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