Times of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Tuesday, June 06, 2017.
Chief
information commissioner Vinson M Paul has ordered the police department to
furnish information that was denied citing that it was regarding T-branch,
which has been exempted from the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The appellant
had sought information under the RTI Act from the police headquarters about the
list of names prepared by district promotion council to fill the DSP vacancies
in 2017. The junior superintendent, who is the head of the T-branch at the
police headquarters, denied the information citing that the section has been
exempted from the ambit of RTI Act.
When the
chief information commissioner examined the matter, it was found that the
matter sought had nothing to do with what compromises the essence of exemption
given to T-branch from the ambit of RTI Act.
In the order
issued last week, on the basis of a petition filed by deputy superintendent of
police N Abdul Rashid, Paul also recalled an order by the high court of Madras
in S Vijayalakshmi vs Union of India and others that "exemption by virtue
of inclusion of CBI in the second schedule to RTI Act is not a wholesale or
blanket exemption". He also recalled the court's observation that
"safeguard is inbuilt in the statute so as to ensure that even in respect
of agencies or organizations listed out in the second schedule are not totally
excluded from the purview of the RTI Act".
The order
also cited that even if the matter was handled by sections that have exemption,
the matters pertaining to human rights and corruption cannot be exempted from
the RTI Act's purview.
It was on the
same matter that state police chief T P Senkumar had issued a circular last
week, saying that information sought from the T-branch concerning human rights
and corruption should not be denied. Senkumar had recalled in his order the
circular issued by former state police chief Jacob Punnoose citing the same.
Senkumar, after issuing the circular, had also apprised the state information
commission that its officers would be answerable for denial of information.
The
government has given exemption to special branch CID, crime branch CID,
district special branches, state and district crime records bureau,
telecommunications bureau, confidential branch in police headquarters, state
and district finger print bureau, state and regional forensic science
laboratories from the ambit of RTI Act.
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