The court ordered that petitioner Ajay Dubey be allowed to access Raj Bhawan's reports to the Centre on the political and administrative situation in the stateThe Madhya Pradesh High Court, in a potentially far-reaching verdict on November 2, has ordered that the Raj Bhawan’s political and administrative reports on the state government since 2011 can be vetted by the petitioner under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.A division bench of Justice A.Y. Kogje and Vivek Jain ordered that petitioner Ajay Dubey be allowed to access Raj Bhawan’s reports to the Union government on the political and administrative situation in the state.The period in question had governors appointed by the Congress-led central government while the state itself had a BJP dispensation.

Also, the BJP-led Centre appointed the governor when the Congress was in power in Madhya Pradesh for a short tenure. The governors include Rameshwar Thakur, Ram Naresh Yadav, Anandiben Patel and current governor Mangubhai C.

Patel. This period also corresponds with the Vyapam scam investigation.It all dates back to 2011 when RTI activist Dubey filed an RTI application asking to see the reports from the Raj Bhawan to the Centre.

The application was rejected by the information officer but allowed by the appellate officer at Raj Bhawan. Raj Bhawan then changed tack and refused to give the information and appealed against the decision of its own appellate authority.

The high court in 2013 upheld the appellate officer’s decision. In 2014, the State Information Commission was reconstituted and Raj Bhawan appealed there against the appellate officer’s decision.The Information Commission upheld the appellate officer’s decision but Raj Bhawan did not show the documents.

This September, a fresh application was filed and the matter reached the high court division bench.“This is the first time the high court has ruled that the reports be made public. The documents are likely to throw light on a very crucial period when the state had been dealing with various scams.

The perception of Raj Bhawan towards the state government during this time is crucial,” said Dubey.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends