The Agency and the Right to Information

In one line

The agency is listed in the Second Schedule to the Right to Information Act, so the Act does not apply to it; but the exemption expressly does not cover information about allegations of corruption or human rights violations.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 24(1) of the Right to Information Act 2005 provides that nothing contained in the Act shall apply 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; the Central Bureau of Investigation was added to that Schedule at serial number 23 by notification G.S.R. 442(E) dated 9 June 2011; and the first proviso to section 24(1) provides that the information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded under the sub-section, the second proviso requiring that 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 receipt of the request.

Section 24 read closely

24(1): the exemption. Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to the intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule, being organisations established by the Central Government, or any information furnished by such organisations to that Government.

Notice how wide that is. It is not an exemption from disclosure of particular documents, of the kind section 8 provides. It disapplies the Act. The listed body has no obligation to appoint a Public Information Officer, no obligation to publish under section 4, and no obligation to answer.

And notice the second limb. Information furnished by such an organisation to the Central Government is also outside the Act. So a report the agency sends to a Ministry does not become disclosable by reaching the Ministry.

First proviso: the carve-out, and it is the point of the chapter. The information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded under this sub-section.

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

Read the two provisos together and a distinction appears that is easy to miss and worth marks. For corruption, the first proviso removes the exemption and no approval of the Central Information Commission is required; the request is dealt with in the ordinary way. For human rights violations, the exemption is also removed, but the information goes only with the Commission's approval and on a forty-five day clock instead of the ordinary thirty days in section 7.