Economic Times; Nikhil Dey; Wednesday , June 29 , 2011,
The decision to exempt the CBI from the provisions of the RTI Act are completely unjustified. The decision will harm the CBI as well as the RTI Act. In fact, all institutions in the country should be under the purview of the RTI Act. In any case, the exemption for intelligence and security agencies contained under section 24 of the Act cannot apply to an investigating agency.
The CBI might carry out some work that requires gathering of intelligence, and it may well investigate many sensitive cases related to security of the state. However, the RTI Act contains adequate safeguards that can protect it from divulging sensitive information. Section 8 of the RTI Act exempts the disclosure of information that would prejudicially affect the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign countries, law and order, safety of an informer, investigation of a crime, etc.
There is a fundamental difference between exempting certain classes of information and providing a blanket exemption to the whole agency. By exempting the agency, it is being freed from the standards of transparency and accountability borne out of scrutiny from the citizen. There are many cases the CBI investigates where it needs to work with ordinary citizens in an atmosphere of openness and mutual trust. The CBI enquiry ordered by the Supreme Court of India into corruption in six districts in Orissa is a case in point. In a scenario of poor credibility of investigating agencies, the CBI is still the first one called to investigate matters of grand corruption. As the former director of the CBI who worked under the RTI regime, Vijay Shankar, has said, the RTI will help the CBI perform better and with more credibility.
At a time when the government is struggling to show that it can create an effective anti-corruption agency, this move will irreparably damage its own credibility. Finally, this misinterpretation of an intelligence and security agency could open the floodgates to a spate of departments wanting to claim exemption from the RTI. It will be the end of the capacity of the RTI Act to enforce transparency and ensure that accountability is to the people of the country. The government must revoke this decision.
(Nikhil Dey: RTI Activist)
The CBI might carry out some work that requires gathering of intelligence, and it may well investigate many sensitive cases related to security of the state. However, the RTI Act contains adequate safeguards that can protect it from divulging sensitive information. Section 8 of the RTI Act exempts the disclosure of information that would prejudicially affect the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign countries, law and order, safety of an informer, investigation of a crime, etc.
There is a fundamental difference between exempting certain classes of information and providing a blanket exemption to the whole agency. By exempting the agency, it is being freed from the standards of transparency and accountability borne out of scrutiny from the citizen. There are many cases the CBI investigates where it needs to work with ordinary citizens in an atmosphere of openness and mutual trust. The CBI enquiry ordered by the Supreme Court of India into corruption in six districts in Orissa is a case in point. In a scenario of poor credibility of investigating agencies, the CBI is still the first one called to investigate matters of grand corruption. As the former director of the CBI who worked under the RTI regime, Vijay Shankar, has said, the RTI will help the CBI perform better and with more credibility.
At a time when the government is struggling to show that it can create an effective anti-corruption agency, this move will irreparably damage its own credibility. Finally, this misinterpretation of an intelligence and security agency could open the floodgates to a spate of departments wanting to claim exemption from the RTI. It will be the end of the capacity of the RTI Act to enforce transparency and ensure that accountability is to the people of the country. The government must revoke this decision.
(Nikhil Dey: RTI Activist)
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