Indian
Express: New Delhi: Monday, September 18,
2017.
The CBI is not entitled to absolute exemption
under the RTI Act and it cannot refuse information pertaining to allegations of
corruption and human rights violations held by it under the RTI Act, the Delhi
High Court has held.
“It is apparent from the plain reading of the
first proviso to Section 24(1)
of the Act that the information pertaining to allegations
of corruption and human rights violation are not excluded from the purview,”
Justice Vibhu Bakhru said.
The CBI has been denying information citing
Section 24 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which says that its provisions will
not apply on intelligence and security organisations, which also include IB,
RAW, NIA and the Enforcement Directorate. The CBI was included in the list by
the erstwhile UPA Government. The Act, however, clearly states that the
information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights
violation will not fall under the exemption given to these organisations under
Section 24 of the RTI Act.
The High court’s ruling came on an appeal filed by
CBI against an order of the Central Information Commission which had refused to
give complete immunity from the RTI Act to CBI. The CIC’s order came on a
petition filed by Hyderabad-based RTI activist CJ Karira who had sought
information pertaining to corruption in several top offices of the country from
the CBI, but the agency had said since it is exempted from the RTI Act, it will
not share such records.
The CBI had told Karira that the information on
alleged corruption and human rights violation can only be disclosed if the
allegations are against any official of the agency. This was an incorrect
interpretation as the RTI Act dealt with information ‘held or controlled’ by a
public authority and does not make any distinction if the allegations of
corruption are against its employee or not, the CIC had noted.
In 2012, then Chief Information commissioner Satyananda Mishra had rejected the
claims of the agency saying when it comes to disclosure of information on
allegations of corruption, blanket immunity given to the agency from the RTI
Act in Section 24
will not apply. In a judgement earlier this month, the
High Court upheld CIC’s order and said the allegations of corruption do not
attract blanket exemption given to the agency in Section 24. It has said the information pertaining to allegations of corruption and
human rights violation can be denied only if they fell under Section 8(1) of the RTI Act which gives 10
grounds on which information can be denied.
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