CBI among agencies exempt from RTI purview, says Kerala HC

The Kerala High Court has held that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was exempted from furnishing information under the Right to Information Act (RTI) as CBI is one of several intelligence and security agencies which have been exempted from the purview of the transparency law.

The October 31 ruling by a Bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly came on a plea moved by a retired assistant commissioner of Central Excise and Customs against a single-judge decision upholding the Central Information Commission's order declining his request under RTI for a CBI enquiry report on some Customs officials.

Read | Explained | What is general consent to the CBI and which states have withdrawn it?

The appellant-petitioner contended that he needed the report to prove his innocence in a case lodged against him alleging that in 2012 while clearing certain sundry goods baggage of NRI labourers, a proper assessment was not done by him for monetary benefits. He was working in the unaccompanied baggage section, Air Cargo, Trivandrum, at that time.

The case lodged against him by one of the Customs officials is pending before the Special Judge, Thiruvananthapuram. The appellant claimed that while the allegations were made against all Customs officials working at the airport, however, an officer of CBI's Anti Corruption Bureau "with ulterior/corrupt motives, manipulated the statements under Section 161 of Cr. P.C of three passengers as prosecution version and department version" and based on the same managed exemption from prosecution for two inspectors.

The appellant claimed also that he had submitted a complaint before the director, CBI, for an enquiry against the Investigating Officer of the case and the same was ordered and completed and a report submitted. But, when he sought the enquiry report to prove his innocence, the same was not provided to him.

CBI, represented by Deputy Solicitor General Manu S, said the information sought by the appellant comes under one of the exempted categories provided under section 8 of the RTI Act and, therefore, the agency was privileged to withhold information by virtue of the protection granted under section 24 of the Act. He contended that the appellant was not entitled to seek discharge from the case against him by relying upon a third-party document.

The Bench, after hearing both sides, said the CBI was one of the agencies included in the second schedule of the RTI Act which contains a list of security and intelligence agencies exempted from the purview of the transparency law. "Therefore, it can be seen that once CBI is included in the second schedule in contemplation of section 24 of the Act, the said organisation is not liable to furnish any information," the Bench said.

It also said that according to various provisions of the Act, any information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders is exempted from disclosure. "So also, as per section 8(1)(j) of Act, 2005, there shall be no obligation to give information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual," it noted in its order.

In view of this legal background, the Bench said "the authorities were justified in declining information" even if no reasons were assigned for not providing the information "Considering the contentions advanced by the appellant in the aforesaid legal background, we are of the undoubted and definite opinion that no interference is required to the judgement of the single-judge, there being no jurisdictional error or other legal infirmities in exercising the discretion by the single-judge under Article 226 of the Constitution," the Bench said and dismissed the appeal.