The case relates to a complaint filed by former RAW officer Maj Gen (Retd) Vinay Kumar Singh, the author of controversial tell-all book "India's External Intelligence: Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing RAW", with the CBI in October 2008.
In his complaint before the CBI, Singh, accused of violating provisions of the Officials Secrets Act for publishing details of working of RAW in his book, alleged serious irregularities and corruption in the functioning of the intelligence agency.
Seeing that no action was taken on his complaint, he filed an RTI application with the CBI seeking a copy of the FIR, details of action taken, file notings, record of meetings and correspondence with other departments, names of officers who have dealt with the complaint among others.
The CBI rejected the application saying the complaint was still at the verification stage and RAW is exempted under the RTI Act, hence no information about it can be provided.
When the case reached before the Central Information Commission, Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra rejected the arguments of the CBI and directed it to provide details of officers who have dealt with the case.
In his order, Mishra also said that he was of the opinion that "photocopies of the file including the file noting and correspondence in respect of dealing with this complaint" should also be provided to Singh.
"However, if any of these records are considered to be covered under any of the exemption provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the CPIO shall, while withholding those records, pass a speaking order clearly citing the relevant exemption provision," he said in the order
