While a large section of the bureaucracy termed the minister's decision as ``absurd and impractical'', Jethmalani today formally ordered his officials to frame guidelines for making files, documents and other orders pertaining to his ministry available to the public on payment of a nominal fee.

The officials claim that the minister's order goes against the ministry's transaction of business rules and the Official Secrets Act.

Speaking to The Indian Express today, Jethmalani, however, said he had officially instructed his ministry to throw open files and other documents to the general public.

``The exact modalities will be worked out in a day or two and the order (making files available to the public) will initially extend to all decisions taken by me and the minister of state (for urban affairs)... the rest of theministry will be covered gradually,'' he said.

Defending his decision, the minister said he was well within his ministerial powers to make such files available for public scrutiny as he desired. He said he did not need the Cabinet's prior approval on the issue, as his decision did not violate any government rules or the ministry's transaction of business rules.

Asked how he would take care of the sensitive and confidential nature of certain files, Jethmalani said that confidentiality (of files) only applied to decisions taken by the Cabinet and not to those taken at the ministerial level.

He brushed aside the prospects of his decision generating another round of controversy in his ministry, saying his prime objective was to make his ministry's functioning transparent.

``Everybody has a right to know what is happening in the ministries and how decisions are taken... what I have done should have been done long ago. With files readily available, people can know for themselves the validity or illegalityof any order and the officials responsible for it,'' he said.

Officials, however, insist on condition of anonymity, that Jethmalani's decision would not stand the Cabinet's scrutiny since the decision does not have any precedence.

``While the general working of the ministry may be open to scrutiny, the procedure adopted to take decisions in the ministry, the notings on files and other related documents have always been confidential,'' a senior official said.