Air India should disclose lease income from assets abroad: CIC
New Delhi, Dec 26 : Cash strapped national carrier Air India should disclose its assets abroad and earnings from them, the Central Information Commission has ruled.
It "summarily" rejected the contention of Air India that the information sought by activist Aseem Takyar regarding rent, lease fee fetched by it from April 01, 2008 with regard to its properties abroad; demarcation plan and total area of these properties, arrears attracts exemption of commercial confidence under the RTI Act.
"Commission summarily rejects the application of Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act in the matter as CPIO has failed to provide any tenable justification for the same," Information Commissioner Divya Prakash Sinha said.
Section 8(1)(d) exempts from disclosure the information which is of commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information.
"Appellant has merely sought to know the amount of rent, lease fee and arrears of rent accruing to Air India from its properties abroad and disclosure of this information can by no stretch of imagination impact aspects of commercial confidence," Sinha said.
He noted that arguments of Air India Central Public Information Officer in written submission appear rather feeble and moreover during hearing no argument was forthcoming from him.
CPIO is directed to provide available and specific information...of the RTI Application for the period mentioned therein..., he said.
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MediaOne TV Facebook page restored after block linked to ‘government request’
Kochi: The official Facebook page of Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV has been restored after being blocked without prior notice, the broadcaster said on Wednesday.
The channel was quoted by Maktoob as saying that the restriction was lifted automatically, with Meta Platforms informing it that the action had been taken following a “government request” which has now expired or been reversed.
The development came shortly after the channel approached the Kerala High Court challenging the blocking of its page, terming it arbitrary and in violation of legal provisions and judicial precedents. The High Court had issued notice to Meta via email hours before the restriction was withdrawn.
In its petition, the channel said access to its Facebook page had been restricted for users in India without citing any specific content or alleged violation. It contended that while individual posts may be taken down under applicable a rule, blocking an entire page goes beyond the scope of such measures.
The incident followed an earlier action taken against the channel in 2022, when the Ministry of Information and transmitting prohibited it from transmitting. It cited national security concerns regarding the Ministry of Home Affairs' refusal of security clearance.
The Supreme Court of India in April 2023 set aside the ban, observing that national security claims cannot be made without substantive basis and that criticism of government policies does not render a media outlet anti-national.
