The Supreme Court on Monday held as illegal a notification issued by the Madhya Pradesh government on August 25, 2011, exempting the Lokayukta’s Special Police Establishment (SPE) from the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The Bench of Justice SVN Bhatti and Justice Atul S Chandurkar observed that the notification travelled beyond the permissible limits of the statute and was excessively broad and unsustainable in law.
The notification had exempted the SPE from the provisions of the RTI Act by invoking Section 24(4), which empowers state governments to exclude certain intelligence and security organisations from the scope of the transparency legislation.
The case arose from a challenge filed by the SPE against a Madhya Pradesh High Court order directing disclosure of information sought under the RTI Act by police inspector Kamta Prasad Mishra, who was facing corruption charges.
Mishra had allegedly been caught accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000, following which the SPE registered a case against him under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. After investigation and grant of sanction for prosecution, a charge sheet was filed before the Special Court in Katni.
Subsequently, Mishra sought copies of file records and official correspondence connected with the decision granting sanction for his prosecution. Although an earlier request was denied while the sanction process was pending, he renewed the request after the sanction had been granted.
The Public Information Officer rejected the application in August 2020, citing the 2011 notification exempting the SPE from the RTI Act. His second appeal was also dismissed on the additional ground that disclosure could impede investigation or prosecution under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act.
Mishra thereafter approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which in December 2021, quashed the rejection orders and directed disclosure of the information sought.
The Supreme Court has now upheld the High Court’s view and invalidated the state government notification granting blanket exemption to the SPE under the RTI Act.
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