Plea In Supreme Court To Bring CBI Under The Ambit Of Right To Information Act

A plea challenging the government’s 2011 decision to keep the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) out of the ambit of the Right to Information Act has been moved in the Supreme Court, seeking an early hearing.

The case was first filed in the Delhi High Court, but later transferred to the top court after the centre had said that several petitions in this regard had been filed in different high courts across the country.

A PIL (public interest litigation) was filed in 2011 in the Delhi High Court by advocate Ajay Agrawal, who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Rai Bareilly constituency against Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The High Court, in July 2011, had issued notices to the government and the CBI as the advocate had alleged that the agency was brought out of the ambit of the RTI because he had sought information regarding documents relating to the politically sensitive Bofors payoff scandal case.

The government had told the court that the exemption granted to the CBI under RTI was not a “blanket exemption” and does not warrant judicial interference.

The petition had said that exemption from RTI was prevalent for intelligence and security organisations, including Intelligence Bureau, Research & Analysis Wing, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate.

When the agency filed the plea for transfer of all similar matters from different high courts to the apex court, the proceedings before the Delhi High Court got stayed.

In the fresh application before the apex court, Agrawal has alleged that the notification was issued by the centre “solely to scuttle the RTI appeal pending before the Chief Information Commissioner, New Delhi in regard to the Bofors case in which order was passed by the CIC directing the CBI to provide the requisite papers to the petitioner”.

In the application, he has alleged that the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government’s decision was aimed “only to save Ottavio Quattrochhi, the prime accused in Bofors scam”.

In his petition, Agrawal, who has been pursuing Bofors payoff case for years, has sought quashing of the 9 June 2011 notification, contending that “by issuing the notification and placing CBI in the Second Schedule, the government appears to be claiming absolute secrecy for CBI without the sanction of the law”.

He has contended that the “impugned notification No GSR 442(E) RTI Act, 2005 is ultra vires to the RTI Act, 2005 as well as Constitution”.

The petition has claimed that the government’s move appeared to be “arbitrary” in nature, as with no reasons advanced, “citizens are likely to deduce that the purpose of including CBI in the Second Schedule was to curb transparency and accountability from the investigations of several corruption cases against high-ranking Government officers”. (PTI)