A view of Delhi High Court, in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Delhi High Court has reiterated that unless the nature of knowledge sought pertains to human rights or corruption associated points, info on India’s exterior intelligence company, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is not liable to be disclosed.
“RAW is an organisation which is specifically mentioned in the Section Schedule to the RTI (Right to Information) Act. It is an exempt organisation,” Justice Prathiba M. Singh mentioned in an order handed on April 26.
The High Court’s commentary got here whereas declining to intervene with an order of the Central Information Commission (CIC) refusing to provide info regarding RAW to former RAW officer Nisha Priya Bhatia.
Ms. Bhatia had sought particulars of purposes for allotment of presidency lodging made by a former RAW chief throughout a sure interval. In response to her RTI question, the Directorate of Estates, Government of India had responded: “The application form contained some service details whose exposure might not be in functional interest of the organization known as RAW”.
Before the High Court, she had challenged the October 30, 2017 order of the CIC, by which it dismissed her enchantment, holding that she was not entitled to obtain the info sought. The CIC had reasoned that RAW is coated by Section 24 of RTI Act as an exempt organisation, and no case of human rights or corruption was made out in the current case to draw the exception.
Section 24 of the RTI Act supplies that the Act doesn’t apply to the safety and intelligence organisations laid out in the Second Schedule of the Act. RAW is one in every of the organisations laid out in the Second Schedule.
However, the first proviso to Section 24 supplies an exception to the exemption offered in Section 24 if the info sought pertains to allegations of corruption and human rights violations.
