Kerala HC seeks clarification from State on whether order exempting Vigilance department from RTI includes inquiries against public officials

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The Kerala High Court has sought clarification from the State government on an order excluding the T1 and T2 sections of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice V. M. Syam Kumar directed the State to inform the bench whether the order exempting the sections covered inquiries against public officials. The bench orally observed that apart from this, the other information held by the Vigilance sections was sensitive and could not be disclosed to the public through the RTI Act.

The court was considering two public interest litigations by lawyer P.K. Muralikrishnan and social activist Joy Kaitharath challenging the State government’s order on exclusion of the sections.

The petitioners argued that although the RTI Act provided an exemption for intelligence and security organisations, one of the provisions excluded information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violations from the protection granted to such organisations. 

They contended that the VACB was an investigative police agency tasked with enforcing the Prevention of Corruption Act, not an intelligence and security organisation as specified in the Act. They informed the court that Section T1 handled high-level vigilance investigations, confidential records, personnel-related information, sensitive verifications and T2 dealt with intelligence inputs, source reports, information collected by vigilance officers and the coordination of surprise inspections. 

The court noted a previous Supreme Court observation that vigilance inquiries into corruption charges against high officials could not be considered an exemption under intelligence and security organisations in the RTI Act.

Published - October 28, 2026 09:07 pm IST