[HumJanenge] HC issues notice to Centre on RTI exemption for CBI

HC issues notice to Centre on RTI exemption for CBI
Chennai: The controversial decision to exempt the CBI from the purview of the
RTI Act has come under legal challenge in the Madras high court, which issued a
notice on Friday to the Union government on a PIL in this regard.

    A bench of Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam directed
Additional Solicitor General M Ravindran, who took the notice on behalf of the
Union Government, to get instructions from it within three weeks on the PIL
seeking to declare the recent notification as ultra vires of the Constitution.
Petitioner S Vijayalakshmi, an RTI activist, challenged the Centre's June 9
notification exempting the CBI from the Central Act 22 of 2005 (RTI). However,
the court declined to grant a stay on the notification as sought by the
petitioner and posted the matter for further hearing after three weeks.

    The notification has come in for widespread condemnation from some civil
society representatives. The country's first Chief Information Commissioner
Wajahat Habibullah has also criticized it. PTI