resignation letter of independent IndiaBR Ambedkar, the first law minister of India, is missing from official records. The President’s Secretariat has confirmed in writing to the Central Information Commission (CIC) that despite extensive searches in the Constitutional Affairs Section, the document could not be found.
The matter arose out of a petition filed under the Right to Information Act, 2005, seeking a certified copy of Dr. Ambedkar’s resignation letter, which was accepted by the then President. The petitioner, who wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Cabinet Secretariat and the President’s Secretariat, also sought to know as to what reasons the first law minister had filed his resignation after resigning from the post.
After the PMO transferred the petition to the Cabinet Secretariat, it was later informed that the President of India accepted Dr. Ambedkar’s resignation from office as Law Minister with effect from October 11, 1951. The Prime Minister can be present in the PMO on the date of acceptance of resignation. The Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Cabinet Secretariat said, “No other information is available with this office at this point.”
On not getting any further information from the CPIOs of the three top offices, the petitioner Prashant filed an appeal before the CIC. He argued that Dr. Ambedkar’s resignation letter should be present in the records of the PMO or the President’s Secretariat as these two offices were the sole authority to accept or reject the resignation of any member of the Council of Ministers.
Referring to the reply of the Cabinet Secretariat that the President of India had accepted the resignation of Dr. Ambedkar with effect from October 11, 1951, he said that the copy of the resignation should be available with the President’s Secretariat.
While the CPIO, Prime Minister’s Office, stated that the petition was transferred to the President’s Secretariat as the acceptance or rejection of resignation letters of ministers comes under the constitutional functions of the President of India, the CPIO, Cabinet Secretariat stated that his office only Provides secretarial assistance to the Cabinet and Cabinet Committees and Rules of Business in accordance with the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. Therefore, none of the information sought in the appeal was available with the Cabinet Secretariat.
On his part, the CPIO, President’s Secretariat, Rashtrapati Bhavan submitted that despite extensive searches in the Constitutional Affairs Section, the document requested by the appellant could not be found and hence no information was available on record.
Passing the order in the matter on February 10, Chief Information Commissioner YK Sinha said that only such information can be given as is with any public authority and no direction can be issued for production of any record. “After examining the detailed submissions made by all the parties, it appears that the custody of the information may be with the President’s Secretariat. However, it is a categorical submission on the part of the President’s Secretariat that there is no information on their records Therefore, no further interference can be called for by the Commission at this stage,” said Mr. Sinha while disposing of the petition.
Incidentally, former President Ram Nath Kovind, while addressing students at a seminar when he was the Governor of Bihar in 2016, had said that Dr. Ambedkar had resigned from Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet when government refused to withdraw Reformist Hindu Code Bill.