Disclose IB report on Sanjiv Chaturvedi: CIC

In a significant order, the Central Information Commission today directed the Intelligence Bureau, an organisation exempted from RTI Act, to make public its report on alleged harassment of whistleblower IFoS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi saying it pertains to allegations of Human Rights violations and corruption.
It is very rarely that India's snooping agency is asked to disclose its records by the CIC. IB is an organisation listed under the Section 24 of the RTI Act which exempts intelligence and security organisations from the purview of the transparency law.
The Act, however, does not extend this exemption to the material held by or under the control of such organisations which pertains to allegations of human rights violations or corruption. The Act also does not differentiate whether allegations are against officials of the agency or not.

"The Commission approves that the copy of the IB report concerning the appellant, as sought by him is the information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations and thus shall be given to the appellant. Hence the Commission directs the IB or MoEF to provide certified copy of IB report relating to Sanjiv Chaturvedi, sought through RTI dated December 05, 2015 as soon as possible not beyond May 6, 2016," Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said.
(REOPENS DEL 72)
Organisation exempted under the section have been

misconstruing the Act to claim that since allegations of corruption and human rights violations are not against their officials, the information sought cannot be disclosed which is contrary to the provisions of the law.

In a lengthy 33-pages order, Acharyulu said it is "factually proved that appellant was put to extreme hardship by the corrupt political rulers and corrupt public servants in retaliation of his unstinted implementation of rule of law."
"Section 24 of RTI Act does not authorize the public authorities exempted under this section to block entire information held by it or generated and given to other public authorities enbloc, but its exclusion from disclosure is limited to that which pertains to core functioning of 'security' and 'intelligence' aspect of exempted organization," he said.
The Information Commissioner said the IB report is "information" as per Section 2(f) held by Environment Ministry and also pertaining to the allegation of corruption or human rights violation as per Section 24 second proviso and hence certified copy of the same shall be given to the appellant.

"The public authorities exempted under section 24 cannot use it to stonewall all RTI requests indiscriminately. The IB has a statutory duty to make all arrangements to provide the information other than that concerning 'security' and 'intelligence' if it pertains to corruption or human rights violation, or useful to prevent corruption or human rights violation, either under voluntary disclosure clauses or other provisions of RTI Act," he said.
Lauding the role of Chaturvedi in exposing corruption in Haryana, Acharyulu said the Constitutional governance should not allow people to lose faith in Satyamev Jayate (the national motto which means truth alone triumphs) or Dharmo Rakshathi Rakshitah(You protect rule of law, it protects you).

"No public servant should be prosecuted for prosecuting corrupt babus or corrupt netas for eating away huge public money," the Information Commissioner said.