SSB ignores RTI, remains mum on sexual harassment cases

New Delhi: Sashastra Seema Bal has refused to provide information on a RTI applicant’s query regarding sexual harassment charges levelled against its officials by wrongly claiming exemption under the Right to Information Act. Sukhbir, a resident of Haryana’s Patoudi village, had sought information related to sexual harassment charges brought against Commandant, Deputy Inspector General and Inspector General-level officials of the paramilitary force.[caption id=“attachment_810121” align=“alignleft” width=“480”] SSB silent on sexual harassment cases. Image courtesy CNN-IBN[/caption] “It is intimated that under Section 24 of Right to Information Act, 2005, SSB is exempted from the provision of said Act except in the cases pertaining to corruption, human rights violation,” the force said in its reply to the RTI query. The Section bars disclosure of information, other than human rights violation and corruption, by security and intelligence organisations including SSB. The Central Information Commission, however, had in many cases held that sexual harassment amounts to human rights violation. “We have also on earlier occasion held that overt gender discrimination amounts to violation of human rights,” the Commission had said while hearing a case filed by ex-RAW official Nisha Priya Bhatia. The 5,000 personnel-strong SSB guards the country’s frontiers along Nepal and Bhutan. Agencies including Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate and Narcotics Control Bureau among others are also exempted to give information under the transparency law. PTI