Keralam govt exempts ‘T’ branch of Vigilance from RTI Act

The Keralam Government has exempted two key sections of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau from the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI). The first and second sections of the T (Top Secret) branch, which deal with sensitive information such as intelligence reports, confidential reports of government officials, etc., have been exempted from RTI.

A gazette notification in this regard was issued on Thursday, October 22. The government invoked section 24(4) of the RTI Act, which empowers state governments to exempt intelligence and security organisations from the purview of the Act.

The state government in 2016 had removed the T branch from the ambit of RTI. However, it rescinded this notification in 2022, after the Indian Association of Lawyers and the Aam Aadmi Party challenged it in the Kerala High Court. This decision has now been reversed again. 

Although Section 24(4) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, empowers the state government to exempt specified organisations from the Act, it expressly excludes information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations from the scope of such exemptions.

Currently, the organisations which are exempted from the RTI are Special Branch CID, Crime Branch CID, district Special Branches, district and state Crime Record Bureau, Police Telecommunication Unit, Confidential Branch in the Police Headquarters and Confidential sections in all Police Offices, state and regional Forensic Science Laboratories, the state and district Finger Print Bureau and Home (Special Sections A and B) departments in the Secretariat. 

According to reports, the steps to bring the T branch of the Vigilance Department were initiated during the term of the previous Left Democratic Front government last year. 

Last week, the Tamil Nadu government revoked an exemption for the law and order department from the RTI Act after political and public pushback.