CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday directed the State government to bring Odisha Vigilance under the purview of the Right To Information Act (RTI), and issue a clarification in this regard within four weeks. The clarification should make it clear that notification issued under Section 24 (4) of the RTI Act by the State Information and Public Relation department in 2016, will not permit the State government to deny information pertaining to the Vigilance department involving allegations of corruption, human rights violations and other information that does not touch upon any of the sensitive and confidential activities, the court specified.
The Vigilance wing under the General Administration department, is the nodal agency for investigating cases of corruption by public servants. The notification issued on August 11, 2016 said, “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section 4 of Section 24 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the State government does hereby specify that nothing contained in the said Act shall apply to the General Administration (Vigilance) department and its organisation.”
Three separate PILs filed by Subash Mohapatra, Sudhansu Kumar Nanda and Pradeep Pradhan had challenged the notification in the same year. While disposing the petitions in a common judgment, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik said, “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.”
“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,” the bench observed.
The bench ruled that the General Administration (Vigilance) department cannot, notwithstanding the said notification, refuse to divulge information pertaining to corruption and human rights violations, which information is not protected from disclosure by virtue of the first proviso to Section 24 (4) of the RTI Act.
“Also, information that does not touch upon any of the sensitive and confidential activities undertaken by the Vigilance Department, cannot be withheld”, the bench ruled.