The Respondent has submitted before this commission that it withdrew the Summary dated 29-01-2021 based on which the Prime Minister constituted the Committee to submit its report on the issue of seniority of the SST teachers. The Respondent has also submitted that the Prime Minister gave approval of the withdrawal on 05-09-2022.
This commission maintains that the Summary dated 29-01-2021 has attained finality after the formal approval of the Prime Minister, hence it is not hit by any of the exemption clauses of “the Act 2017” including its Section 7 (b) and (c).
Even plain reading of Section 7 (a), (b) and (c) suggests that ‘noting on the files’, ‘minutes of the meeting’ and intermediary opinions are given qualified and not absolute exclusion from disclosure. Exclusion of ‘noting on the file’, ‘minutes of the meetings’ and ‘intermediary opinion and recommendation’ is subject to a final decision. As such, ‘noting on the file’, ‘minutes of the meeting’ and ‘intermediary opinion’ cannot be shared during the deliberative process.
The disclosure of ‘minutes of meetings’, ‘noting on the file’ and ‘intermediary opinion and recommendation’ during the deliberative process is protected to ensure that outside influence does not create hindrances in the deliberative process.
However, once a public body has taken a final decision, as is the case in the instant appeal, noting on the files, minutes of the meetings and ‘intermediary opinion and recommendation’ cannot be treated as excluded records.