Southern Railway refuses to share inquiry report of Perumon train tragedy

Southern Railway refuses to disclose details of 1988 Perumon train tragedy investigation citing confidentiality and legal restrictions.

The Southern Railway has refused to disclose details of the investigation into the Perumon train tragedy, in which 105 people lost their lives when the Bangalore-Tiruvananthapuram Central Island Express derailed on a bridge, causing several coaches to plunge into Kerala’s Ashtamudi Lake on July 8, 1988.

The Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) stated that the final report by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, who investigated the accident, was “confidential”. He said that the inquiry reports were statutory documents and were exempted from disclosure under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

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The issue arose from a petition filed by Syamdas D., who requested a copy of the inquiry report on the Perumon train accident. The CPIO and First Appellate Authority denied the request, invoking Section 8(1) of the RTI Act, specifically, clause (b) (information prohibited by any court of law or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court) and clause (d) (information related to commercial confidence or intellectual property, where disclosure could harm a third party’s competitive position unless larger public interest justifies it).

Aggrieved by the refusal, the petitioner appealed to the Central Information Commission (CIC) saying that the details called for by him were wrongly denied. 

In response, the CPIO argued that the Commissioner of Railway Safety had classified the report as a “confidential document,” not to be produced or cited as evidence in court. As a result, the information requested was considered expressly forbidden from publication under the RTI Act.

Information Commissioner Vinod Kumar Tiwari, after reviewing arguments from both sides, upheld the CPIO’s decision, concluding that it complied with the provisions of the RTI Act.