NEW DELHI: At a time when the federal government is mulling adjustments in the RTI Act, information commissioner Divya Prakash Sinha has suggested that investigative, intelligence and security businesses like NIA, CBI, IB and paramilitary forces will have to come below the purview of the law, pronouncing there are good enough safeguards in the Act to keep delicate information outside the general public area.
The former IPS officer, who spent maximum of his time in Intelligence Bureau (IB), says transparency needs to be “all pervasive” and that the RTI Act helps herald duty in executive departments.
Currently, 20-odd investigative businesses are outside the ambit of the RTI Act, topic to exceptions like allegations of corruption and human rights violations. It includes businesses like IB, RAW, DRI, para-military forces like BSF and CRPF in addition to Assam Rifles, CBI, NIA, NSG and others. These are a part of an inventory of exempt businesses in the Second Schedule of Section 24 of the RTI Act.
Sinha says preserving security businesses on a “other pedestal with certain riders is obscure”. “There are exemption provisions below Section eight and 9 of the RTI Act that take good enough care of knowledge which those (security) organisations may not like to expose in public area,” explains Sinha, including that the applicability of the enabling provisions of RTI Act will have to be all-pervasive for public authorities. “Transparency is the anti-thesis of corruption… My experience in the Commission provides me an influence that exemption of security, intelligence and investigative businesses has a significant unfavourable impact on the proper of the folks to information below the Act,” he says.
His remarks come at a time when CBI is just about going via a turmoil with the top brass trading fees of corruption towards one every other.
The former IPS officer, who spent maximum of his time in Intelligence Bureau (IB), says transparency needs to be “all pervasive” and that the RTI Act helps herald duty in executive departments.
Currently, 20-odd investigative businesses are outside the ambit of the RTI Act, topic to exceptions like allegations of corruption and human rights violations. It includes businesses like IB, RAW, DRI, para-military forces like BSF and CRPF in addition to Assam Rifles, CBI, NIA, NSG and others. These are a part of an inventory of exempt businesses in the Second Schedule of Section 24 of the RTI Act.
Sinha says preserving security businesses on a “other pedestal with certain riders is obscure”. “There are exemption provisions below Section eight and 9 of the RTI Act that take good enough care of knowledge which those (security) organisations may not like to expose in public area,” explains Sinha, including that the applicability of the enabling provisions of RTI Act will have to be all-pervasive for public authorities. “Transparency is the anti-thesis of corruption… My experience in the Commission provides me an influence that exemption of security, intelligence and investigative businesses has a significant unfavourable impact on the proper of the folks to information below the Act,” he says.
His remarks come at a time when CBI is just about going via a turmoil with the top brass trading fees of corruption towards one every other.
Bring CBI, NIA & IB within RTI ambit, says info panel chief
![Bring CBI, NIA & IB within RTI ambit, says info panel chief]()
Reviewed by Kailash
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November 07, 2018
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