Excluding CBI from RTI - Certainly Bad Timing
WHILE this Government deserves all praise for bringing in the RTI Act and slightly empowering the citizen against brute might of the State. Now the Government accosted with swindles and scandals has started showing weak links in its administration and does not want the citizens to know about its top intelligence agencies.
Minister of State in the PMO, V. Narayana Swamy defends the move citing National Security as the reason and claims that it is done based on the opinion of the Attorney General.
The first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has told the Prime Minister that the move is counterproductive. Habibullah is reported to have written in a letter to the Prime Minister, “CBI does not collect intelligence or perform security related duties and does not "fit" the criteria laid down for organisations, listed under second schedule of Section 24 of the transparency law, which are exempted from disclosing information under the Act. Given the public mood around the country against corruption, exempting the CBI could be counter-productive. The same might be said for exempting others such as National Investigation Agency (NIA) which also perform investigative functions."
Already CBI has acted on the exemption. It recently refused to part with information about disproportionate asset cases against government servants, including bureaucrats and ministers, even though the application was made much before CBI could get the exemption. Now that raises a question – Is the exemption retrospective?
In the meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has stayed an order of the CIC declaring the Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) as a "public authority" under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. In this case, the applicant wanted to know the cost of Bisleri bottles sold at MIAL. (They were being sold at prices higher than the MRP – Does that make a case for Central Excise?)