The Intelligence Bureau (IB) on Monday challenged in the Delhi High Court a single judge’s order upholding a Central Information Commission (CIC) direction to the agency to give its report on alleged harassment and false cases against Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, for exposing graft.
In its appeal against the single judge’s order of August 23, the IB has contended that the organisation and any information furnished by it to the government, is excluded from the purview of the transparency law, Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The matter came up before a Bench of Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Sunil Gaur which listed it for hearing on December 12.
Mr. Chaturvedi, currently posted as Conservator of Forest at Haldwani in Nainital District of Uttarakhand, had sought through RTI, a copy of the IB report submitted in regard to alleged false cases filed against him by “corrupt” officers exposed by him during his term as divisional forest officer (DFO) in Haryana.
Plea dismissed
The IB had objected to the disclosure, after which Mr. Chaturvedi had approached the CIC.
The CIC on April 21, 2016, had held that even though the IB is exempted from sharing information under Section 24 of the RTI Act, it has to provide information pertaining to allegations of corruption. The agency appealed against the decision in the High Court which dismissed its plea.
