Exemption of CB-CID from RIA: court orders notice

[karira]

The Madras High Court has ordered notices on a writ appeal against a single judge order directing the Public Department to clarify a Government Order that exempts the CB-CID from the purview of the Right to Information Act. A Division Bench of Justice P.K. Misra and Justice K.K. Sasidharan ordered notices to the Tamil Nadu Information Commission, the Chennai City Commissioner of Police and the CB-CID Superintendent of Police, returnable in four weeks.

Vishwanath Swami sought a directive to the authorities to ensure compliance with the Act, besides action against the persons who denied him certain information under the Act. He was a party-in-person “trying to expose” Kalki Bhagawan and his activities.

He said the single judge order left him at the mercy of the Information Commission, which was reluctant to ensure that its own directives to the authorities were complied with. Besides the details of the investigation carried out by the police, Mr. Swami sought to know whether any departmental action was taken against the investigating officer and other officials named in his complaint.

The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Exemption of CB-CID from RIA: court orders notice

[sidmis]

Citizens can seek info from CID on graft, rights issues
as reported BY Rahul Mangaonkar, 29 Aug 2008,TNN

AHMEDABAD: A debate at the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) whether the CID qualifies to be listed in the category of organizations exempt from the obligations of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has taken an interesting turn.

The state general administration department (GAD) has clarified that citizens have a right to seek information from not just the CID but also the state intelligence bureau, local intelligence bureau (LIB) and other such organizations . This though being limited to information pertaining to allegations of human rights violations and corruption as per the provisions of RTI.

The state home department had issued a notification dated October 25, 2005 listing organizations including CID in the exempt category. Section 24(4) of RTI states that its provisions shall not apply to 'intelligence and security ' organizations as notified by the state government.

GAD had asked the home department to take necessary action in light of the instructions received from the department of personnel and training (DoPT) of the Union ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions. DoPT had on November 14 last year written to all state governments to designate public information officers (PIO's ) and appellate authorities in exempt organizations.

The DoPT letter states that since the RTI does not exempt these organizations from its purview in respect of allegations of corruption and human rights violation, thus the citizens have a right though limited to seek information from these organizations . Acting on the DoPT letter, state GAD had written to the home department on May 17 this year.

This was revealed in a reply sent by GAD to activist Mahesh Pandya of NGO Paryavaran Mitra this month following Gujarat High Court's order to the state government to decide on Pandya's representation seeking action on implementation of provisions of RTI.

GAD has also now revealed that its controversial circular dated November 11, 2005 which stated that file notings do not fall under the definition of information and are not to be given under RTI has been cancelled. The circular was cancelled through notification dated July 22 which also lists the do's and don'ts for the PIOs.

Exempted intelligence and security organizations
State Intelligence Bureau Criminal Investigation Department Anti Terrorist Squad Commando Unit Border Wing Home Guards State Reserve Police Force Local Intelligence Branch. (LIB) Local Crime Branch. (LCB.) Special branches of CP Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) Special branches of Home department Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL)

'Citizens can seek info from CID on graft, rights issues' -Ahmedabad-Cities-The Times of India