The Ministry of Home Affairs has denied to provide any information on IPS who have prematurely retired, removed or dismissed since 2014. An advocate at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Hemant Kumar had sought information about the total number as well as names along with their State cadres of all IPS officers who have been prematurely retired, removed, terminated or dismissed etc. from All India Service namely – IPS, since May, 2014 to till date under the Right To Information Act, 2005. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) turned down this request for information saying, “there’s no public interest involved”.
“It is stated that there is no public interest involved in providing the information. As such, the information sought can’t be provided under section 8(1)(j)of the RTI Act, 2005”, said the Ministry in the response on 11thMarch.
However, Mr. Kumar is not satisfied with the respond and said that when Section 8(1) (j) of RTI Act, 2005, which has been invoked by CPIO (Central Public Information Officer) to deny him information, itself mentioned that the information, which could not be denied to Parliament or a State legislature shall not be denied to any person, how had the Home Ministry declined him the requisite information, and that too stating that there was no public interest involved therein.