HC stays CIC order asking CBI to provide info to its officer

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has stayed an order of the transparency panel CIC directing the CBI to provide one of its officers the status of his disciplinary proceedings and related information.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru in an interim order put on hold the Central Information Commissions (CIC) June 9 decision in which the panel had said that the CBI officer had the “right to know about his own case”.

The court also issued notice to the officer and sought his reply before the next date of hearing on January 22, 2018.

It noted that the information sought by the officer from the CBI did not pertain to allegations of corruption or human rights violation in the agency.

Under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, security and intelligence agencies are exempted from the purview of the transparency law, except where information is sought regarding allegations of corruption or human rights violations.

The order came on the CBIs appeal, filed through advocate C K Bhatt, against the CIC decision asking the agency to revisit the RTI application of the officer and to give him a point-wise reply to each of his query, keeping in view the provisions of the transparency law.

PTI