Exemptions from Disclosure

Clause (j) as it now stands

Section 8(1)(j) was substituted by section 44 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, being Act 22 of 2023, with effect from 13 November 2025. It now reads, in its entirety: "information which relates to personal information".

What it replaced. The former clause exempted personal information the disclosure of which had no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual, unless the Public Information Officer or the appellate authority was satisfied that the larger public interest justified disclosure; and it carried a proviso that information which cannot be denied to Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.

What has therefore gone, and this is the examinable point:

1. The requirement that the information have no relationship to public activity or interest before it could be withheld. Under the old clause, personal information connected with a public activity was not exempt at all.
2. The unwarranted invasion of privacy test.
3. The internal public interest override in the clause itself.
4. The Parliament proviso, which had been the strongest single sentence in the Act: whatever could be told to a legislature had to be told to a citizen.

What survives is section 8(2), and an answer that misses this is wrong. The general override is untouched. So a citizen seeking personal information must now bring himself within section 8(2) rather than within clause (j) itself, and the burden and the framing are different: under the old clause the officer had to justify withholding, and under section 8(2) the officer is permitted, not obliged, to allow access where the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm.

The change is a legislative choice between two constitutional values. The right to information rests on Article 19(1)(a); privacy was held to be protected under Article 21 and as part of Part III in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) v. Union of India, AIR 2017 SC 4161.

Facts. That case was heard by nine judges on a reference asking whether the right to privacy is a fundamental right, arising out of the challenge to the Aadhaar scheme, and the Court had also to consider the majority view in the Emergency detention case that Article 21 was the sole repository of the right to life and personal liberty.

Held. The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III. The Court also held, in terms, that the Emergency detention decision must be and is accordingly overruled, together with the decision that had followed it.

Why it matters here. It supplies the constitutional weight on the other side of the balance, and it is what makes the 2025 substitution defensible in principle while leaving the question of degree open to argument.

Section 8(2): the public interest override

Notwithstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act 1923, nor any of the exemptions permissible under section 8(1), a public authority may allow access to information if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests.

Three points.

1. It overrides the Official Secrets Act 1923 expressly, which together with section 22 is what prevents official secrecy being the standard answer.
2. It applies to all the exemptions in section 8(1), including those which have no internal public interest test.
3. It is permissive in form, "may allow access", but it must be applied with an open mind and a refusal to consider it at all is a failure to exercise discretion: [Grounds of Judicial Review: Failure to Exercise Discretion].

Section 8(3): the twenty year rule

Subject to clauses (a), (c) and (i) of section 8(1), any information relating to any occurrence, event or matter which took place, occurred or happened twenty years before the date of the request shall be provided. Where a question arises as to the date from which the twenty years is computed, the decision of the Central Government is final, subject to the usual appeals under the Act.

Note which three clauses are excepted: sovereignty, security and foreign relations under (a); breach of privilege under (c); and cabinet papers under (i). Everything else becomes disclosable with the passage of twenty years.

Section 9: copyright

Without prejudice to section 8, a Public Information Officer may reject a request where providing access would involve an infringement of copyright subsisting in a person other than the State.

The words "other than the State" are the point: the State's own copyright is not a ground of refusal.

Section 24: excluded organisations

Sub-section (1): nothing in the Act applies to the intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule, being organisations established by the Central Government, or to any information furnished by such organisations to that Government.

First proviso: information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded.

Second proviso: where the information sought is in respect of allegations of violation of human rights, it shall be provided only after the approval of the Central Information Commission, and notwithstanding section 7, within forty-five days of the request.

Sub-section (2): the Central Government may by notification amend the Schedule by including or omitting an organisation. Sub-section (3): every such notification shall be laid before each House of Parliament. Sub-section (4): corresponding provision for State intelligence and security organisations, with the State Government notifying and the State Information Commission approving.

Section 24 is an exclusion of the Act, not an exemption under it. The difference matters: an exemption under section 8 is subject to the section 8(2) override and to severance under section 10, while section 24 takes the organisation outside the Act altogether, save for the two excepted subjects.

Section 22: overriding effect

The provisions of the Act have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent contained in the Official Secrets Act 1923 and in any other law for the time being in force, or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than the Act.

Section 22 with section 8(2) is why the answer "this is an official secret" is not by itself an answer to a request.

A worked example

A citizen asks a Ministry for six things. Advise on each.

1. The file on the deployment of a paramilitary unit at the border. Exempt under section 8(1)(a): sovereignty, integrity and security. Section 8(3) does not assist even after twenty years, because clause (a) is excepted.
2. The minutes of a Cabinet meeting held last month on a live policy. Exempt under section 8(1)(i) while the matter is live. But once the decision is taken and the matter is complete, the first proviso requires the decision, the reasons and the material on which it was based to be made public.
3. A private company's cost sheet filed with a regulator. Prima facie commercial confidence under section 8(1)(d), but that clause has its own internal override where the larger public interest warrants disclosure, and section 11 requires the company to be given notice and an opportunity to make a submission.
4. The medical records of a named officer. Now squarely within section 8(1)(j) as substituted, which exempts information relating to personal information without more. Before 13 November 2025 the officer would have had to ask whether the disclosure had any relationship to a public activity or interest and whether it would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy, and whether a larger public interest justified disclosure. The only route now is section 8(2).
5. The file on an ongoing corruption investigation in an organisation listed in the Second Schedule. Section 24 would exclude the organisation, but the first proviso brings back information pertaining to allegations of corruption, so the exclusion does not apply to this request; section 8(1)(h) may still be raised, since disclosure may impede the investigation.
6. A file containing one page of cabinet deliberation and forty pages of tender correspondence. Section 10 requires the forty pages to be given, with a notice stating the reasons for severance, the findings, the name of the deciding officer and the applicant's rights of appeal.

What it does NOT mean

It does not mean the exemptions are a general discretion to withhold. They are ten defined heads plus section 9 and section 24, and a refusal must state which is relied on.

It does not mean official secrecy is an answer. Sections 8(2) and 22 override the Official Secrets Act 1923.

It does not mean cabinet papers are secret for ever. The first proviso to clause (i) requires the decision, the reasons and the material to be published once the matter is complete.

It does not mean the RTI Act has lost its public interest test. Clause (j)'s internal test has gone; the section 8(2) override remains.

Quick revision

1. Section 8(1) exempts ten heads: (a) sovereignty, integrity, security, strategic, scientific or economic interests, foreign relations, incitement of an offence; (b) matter forbidden by a court or amounting to contempt; (c) breach of privilege of a legislature; (d) commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property harming a third party's competitive position, unless larger public interest warrants disclosure; (e) fiduciary information, subject to the same override; (f) information received in confidence from a foreign Government; (g) information endangering life or physical safety or identifying a confidential source; (h) information impeding investigation, apprehension or prosecution; (i) cabinet papers; and (j) information which relates to personal information.
2. Proviso to (i): the decisions of the Council of Ministers, the reasons and the material are to be made public once the decision is taken and the matter is complete.
3. Clause (j) was substituted by section 44 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, Act 22 of 2023, with effect from 13 November 2025. Gone: the no relationship to public activity test, the unwarranted invasion of privacy test, the internal public interest override, and the proviso that what cannot be denied to a legislature cannot be denied to a citizen.
4. Section 8(2) survives: notwithstanding the Official Secrets Act 1923 and any exemption in section 8(1), access may be allowed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests.
5. Section 8(3): information about matters more than twenty years old is disclosable, except under clauses (a), (c) and (i).
6. Section 9: rejection where access would infringe a copyright subsisting in a person other than the State.
7. Section 24: the Act does not apply to the intelligence and security organisations in the Second Schedule; but information on allegations of corruption and human rights violations is not excluded, and human rights information requires the approval of the Central Information Commission and is to be provided within forty-five days.
8. Section 10: severance. Section 22: overriding effect over the Official Secrets Act 1923 and any other inconsistent law.
9. Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) v. Union of India, AIR 2017 SC 4161: privacy is protected under Article 21 and Part III, which is the constitutional weight on the other side of the 2025 change.

Test yourself

1. State the exemptions under section 8(1) of the Right to Information Act 2005. There is no obligation to give a citizen: information whose disclosure would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State or relations with a foreign State, or lead to incitement of an offence; information expressly forbidden to be published by a court or tribunal, or whose disclosure would be contempt of court; information whose disclosure would breach the privilege of Parliament or a State Legislature; information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property whose disclosure would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that a larger public interest warrants disclosure; information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, subject to the same override; information received in confidence from a foreign Government; information whose disclosure would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify a source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes; information which would impede investigation, apprehension or prosecution; cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers; and information which relates to personal information.

2. How has section 8(1)(j) changed, and what remains of the public interest test? Clause (j) was substituted by section 44 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, which is Act 22 of 2023, with effect from 13 November 2025, and now reads simply "information which relates to personal information". The clause it replaced exempted personal information only where disclosure had no relationship to any public activity or interest, or would cause an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual, and then only unless the Public Information Officer or the appellate authority was satisfied that the larger public interest justified disclosure, with a proviso that information which cannot be denied to Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. All four of those features have gone. What remains is section 8(2), the general override, under which a public authority may allow access notwithstanding the Official Secrets Act 1923 and notwithstanding any exemption in section 8(1), if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. It is therefore wrong to say the Act has no public interest test for personal information; the clause specific test has gone and the general override survives.

3. Explain section 8(2) and section 22. Section 8(2) provides that notwithstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act 1923, and notwithstanding any of the exemptions permissible under section 8(1), a public authority may allow access to information if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. Section 22 provides that the Act has effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent in the Official Secrets Act 1923, in any other law in force, or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than the Act. Together they mean that official secrecy is not by itself an answer to a request: the authority must identify an exemption under the Act, and even then must consider whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm. Since section 8(2) is permissive in form, an authority that refuses even to consider it has failed to exercise a discretion it possesses.

4. What is the effect of section 24, and how does it differ from an exemption? Section 24 provides that nothing in the Act applies to the intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule, being organisations established by the Central Government, or to information furnished by them to that Government, with a corresponding provision for State organisations. Its first proviso excepts information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations, and its second proviso requires that human rights information be provided only after the approval of the Central Information Commission and, notwithstanding section 7, within forty-five days. The Central Government may amend the Schedule by notification, which must be laid before each House. It differs from an exemption because it excludes the organisation from the Act altogether rather than exempting particular information within it, so the section 8(2) public interest override and the severance provision in section 10 do not operate, save in respect of the two excepted subjects.

5. Are cabinet papers permanently exempt? No. Section 8(1)(i) exempts cabinet papers, including records of the deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers, but the first proviso to that clause requires that the decisions of the Council of Ministers, the reasons for them, and the material on the basis of which the decisions were taken shall be made public after the decision has been taken and the matter is complete or over. The exemption therefore protects deliberation while a matter is live rather than the decision afterwards. The second proviso adds that matters falling under the other exemptions in the section shall not be disclosed, and section 8(3), which makes information more than twenty years old disclosable, expressly excepts clause (i) along with clauses (a) and (c).