The Enforcement
Directorate is exempted from the scope of the Right to Information (RTI) Act
but it can be directed to supply information concerning human rights
violations, which includes allegations of sexual harassment, the Delhi High
Court has held.
The court passed
the order while dealing with two petitions by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)
challenging two orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing
disclosure of certain information to RTI applicants.
While one of the
applicants sought administrative information pertaining to recruitment rules,
the other -- a legal adviser to the ED--wanted information related to
allegations of sexual harassment made by her.
Justice Prathiba
M Singh set aside the CIC order passed in the first instance but directed the
agency to disclose the information sought by the RTI Applicant in the second
case within eight weeks.
"The ED is
exempted under Section 24 of the RTI Act, 2005 from disclosing the said
information (on recruitment rules). Accordingly, the impugned order dated 27th
November, 2019 passed by the CIC is set aside," the court ordered.
"Insofar as
W.P.(C) 5588/2019 is concerned, in the opinion of this Court, the information
sought in the RTI Application relates to an allegation of sexual harassment by
the RTI Applicant/ Respondent..In this case, the non-disclosure of information
of allegations of sexual harassment, in the opinion of this Court, would fall
clearly within the conspectus of human rights violations, as exempted by the
proviso to Section 24 of the RTI Act, 2005," opined the court in a recent
order.
Justice Singh
said the consistent view in decisions by the courts has been that organisations
like the Intelligence Bureau (IB), ED and Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) are considered to be exempted organisations as per section
24 of the RTI Act but the proviso to this section has been interpreted to hold
that the information related to exempted organisations can be disclosed in
cases of corruption and human rights violation.
About the
information sought by the other applicant "only about recruitment
rules", the court said it was "not a case which would involve any
human rights violation and is accordingly not exempted by the proviso".
The benefit of
the proviso will be applicable to the RTI applicant who sought certain
information pertaining to the allegations of sexual harassment made by her, the
court concluded.
"The ED is
directed to disclose the information sought by the RTI Applicant/ Respondent
within eight weeks," ordered the court as it clarified that it has not
examined any allegation of sexual harassment.