: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday stayed a January 27 Government Order exempting the T (Top secret) branch of the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau from the purview of the Right to Information Act.
The Bench of Justice P.N. Ravindran and Justice Sunil Thomas, while issuing the stay order, made it clear that the RTI Act would continue to apply to the T branch of the VACB.
The Bench observed that a prima facie case had been made out for staying the Government Order.
‘Abuse of power’
The order came on a writ petition filed by A. Jayasankar, general secretary, Indian Association of Lawyers, and its State committee. According to the petitioner, the T branch was probing the allegations of corruption against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Ministers, MPs, MLAs and top IAS/IPS officials.
The petitioner contended that the order was sheer abuse of power. The RTI Act provided for exempting only Intelligence and security organisations from its purview. In fact, the VACB was an agency tasked with the job of probing corruption charges against public officials. The exemption order was issued to cover up large-scale corruption indulged in by Ministers and higher officials and with a mala fide intention to prevent the public from knowing the details of the probe being conducted into the corruption charges against Ministers and top officials before the Assembly election.
The petitioner pleaded that unless the order was stayed, it would cause irreparable harm to the general public.
