Though CBI asked for partial exemption from RTI, govt gave it full

After about three years of the UPA government keeping CBI out of the ambit of the RTI, it has been found that although the investigating agency had only asked the government for a partial exemption, the government decided to go ahead and give it full exemption.

The government felt that only partially exempting the CBI would lead to other bodies asking for the same, and this push for full exemption was strongly backed by the Prime Minister’s Office, according to file notings and official records accessed by The Indian Express.

The PMO, when the decision of exemption came about, had said that the CBI handled various issues of national security and hence should be kept put of the RTI ambit.

The documents show that the CBI hesitatingly began its campaign to step out of the transparency regime in July 2010 with the Central Vigilance Commission recommending that only the agency’s special unit — which deals with collection of intelligence — be exempted from the RTI Act just as in the case of other intelligence agencies, reports The Indian Express.

Earlier, CBI sources had said that the provisions of section 8 of the RTI Act, 2005 gives case-to-case basis of application of exemption. However, they said was is not possible to decide in such a fashion on secrecy of individual documents or pieces of information.

However, the investigative agency had listed out departments that could disclose information under the RTI ambit and had submitted the list to Department of Personnel and Training on 14 February, 2011.

The India Express quotes Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium backing the formula. “I am, however, not convinced that all aspects of the organisation of the CBI must be given exemption,” he wrote in his 23-page opinion, adding that a “qualification” be added so that the above-mentioned five departments are retained under the RTI Act, reported newspaper reported.

The Prime Minister had okayed CBI being kept out of the RTI ambit on 7 June, 2011.