Times of India: New Delhi: Sunday, August 27, 2017.
In a verdict
widening the ambit of the Right To Information Act, the Delhi high court has
declared that Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports concerning cases of corruption
and human rights violation fall under the transparency law.
These can be
disclosed under the RTI Act, as long as they don't affect core security and
intelligence operations of security agencies.
The HC
declared last week that the exemption clause under the RTI Act can't be invoked
if the information pertains to allegations of corruption and human rights
violation.
"The
proviso is not qualified and conditional on the information being related to
the intelligence or security organisation exempted by the Act. If the
information sought or furnished by the exempt organisation pertains to
allegations of corruption and human rights violation, it would be exempt from
the exclusion clause," ruled Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva.
The verdict
came on an appeal filed by IB against an order by the Central Information
Commission, asking it to disclose a report generated for the ministry of forest
& environment on alleged harassment and false cases filed against IFS
officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, for exposing graft during his tenure as forest
officer in Haryana.
Chaturvedi
sought a copy of the IB report through RTI, citing to the CIC that he ought to
know its details, since the report refers to alleged corruption by public
servants who harassed him.
The IB
report, prepared in 2014, was submitted in relation to false cases filed
against him by "corrupt" officers exposed by him.
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