Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court Monday asked the state government to bring the Vigilance Directorate under the purview of Right to Information (RTI) Act. The court has asked the government to come up with a notification within four weeks.
August 11, 2016, the state Information and Public Relations (I&PR) department had issued a notification to keep the entire vigilance wing outside the purview of the RTI Act.
While hearing three petitions filed in the HC against the government’s decision, a High Court bench comprising of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Judge RK Pattanaik said, “The impugned notification insofar as it seeks to exempt the entire vigilance department of the government from the view of the RTI Act would run counter to the first proviso to Section 24 (4) of the RTI Act.”
“In other words, the notification insofar as it prevents disclosure of information concerning the General Administration (Vigilance) department even when it pertains to allegations of corruption and human rights violations would be contrary to the first proviso to Section 24 (4) of the RTI Act and, by that yardstick, would be unsustainable in law,” the court observed.
If under the RTI Act disclosure is the norm, and non-disclosure the exception, then the impugned notification seeks to take away what is provided by the RTI Act and is therefore ultra vires the RTI Act, it said.
By virtue of this decision of the court, the GA (Vigilance) department cannot refuse to divulge information pertaining to corruption and human rights violations, which information is expressly not protected from disclosure by virtue of the first proviso to Section 24 (4) of the Act.
Also, information that does not touch upon any of the sensitive and confidential activities undertaken by the vigilance department cannot be withheld, the court said.
Further, the bench said that the government cannot deny information pertaining to the Vigilance department involving allegations of corruption and human rights violations, and other information that does not touch upon any of the sensitive and confidential activities undertaken by the Vigilance department.
A further clarificatory notification to the above effect must be issued by the government of Odisha within four weeks, ordered the HC.