THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On Opposition leader V. S. Achuthanandan’s petition, the State Information Commission (SIC) will on Monday send a notice to the government to explain its decision to exempt top-secret section of vigilance from the purview of the Right to Information Act.
Chief information commissioner Siby Mathews said a notice would be sent to the general administration department seeking all files related to the notification.
The wing probes complaints against the chief minister, ministers, MPs, MLAs, former ministers and all India civil service officials.
If the government notification is found to be unreasonable, the SIC could direct the government to withdraw it. In case the government did oblige, the matter could be taken to High Court. Apart from Achuthanandan, many RTI activists have also approached the SIC seeking a directive to the government to withdraw the notification.
RTI activists express doubts over the arguments of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy that the state was following the Tamil Nadu model. "As far as we know, there is no blanket ban on divulging details of corruption cases in Tamil Nadu," activist D. B. Binu said.
Though the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had written to anti-corruption agencies of all states to know about restrictions on information on corruption cases under RTI, only a couple of states responded. Karnataka had even informed that restrictions on divulging information were only during the investigation.
