Bengaluru: The Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) has sought permission from the state government to exempt it from provisions of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005. While the detractors point out that the state government constituted the ACB and brought it directly under its control only to undermine the Lokayukta, some legal experts feel that ACB officials are not crossing the line in seeking such an exemption.
Ms Vaishali Hegde, a High Court advocate, says that ACB officials are well within their purview to seek the exemption under Section 8 of the RTI Act, which allows exemption from disclosure of information.
She clarifies that under Section 8 (G) and 8 (H), any information that could impede the process of investigation or that would endanger life or physical safety of any person or reveals the identity of the source of information or assistance given in confidence of law enforcement or security purposes, the ACB can deny sharing of such information.
On the contrary, activist S.R. Hiremath is not surprised with the ACB’s move to write a letter to the state government. “The current government has hit the rock bottom and is now sliding lower than that,” he commented.
Former Lokayukta, Justice N. Santhosh Hegde, said that in order to conduct a fair probe, the ACB should be exempted from the RTI Act. “There will be certain cases where officials cannot share information as it may hamper the course of the investigation. The officials are not wrong in requesting exemption,” he said.
ACB officials said that apart from asking the state government to exempt the body from the RTI Act, they have also sough permission to conduct the investigation in pending cases against government officials in which preliminary investigation has been completed.
