The Kerala government has again exempted two confidential sections of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) from the Right to Information Act, limiting public access to records held by the units that manage sensitive personnel and investigation information.
The exemption covering the T1 and T2 sections was published through a government notification in the gazette on October 22. The state invoked Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, 2005, which permits state governments to exclude specified intelligence and security organisations from the law through an official gazette notification.
The latest move reverses a decision taken in 2022, when the two VACB sections were brought within the RTI framework. They had originally been excluded under a 2006 government notification that placed eight state intelligence and security organisations outside the Act’s purview.
The T1 section maintains and processes annual confidential reports of ministerial, executive and legal staff in the vigilance department. It also holds personnel files classified as having high security significance and top-secret documents. The T2 section processes the weekly diaries of vigilance officers and handles reports from confidential sources, according to the report published by the Times of India.
The notification adds the two sections to the list of exempted organisations under the provisions of the 2006 government order. The stated legal basis is Section 24(4), rather than a change to the RTI Act itself.
The decision has political implications because the sections deal with information linked to vigilance personnel, confidential sources and ongoing investigations. The BJP alleged that the exemption would protect people facing corruption cases. The report also noted that the two sections handle cases involving the chief minister, ministers, political leaders and senior officials. The allegation was reported as the BJP’s response to the notification and was not independently established in the supplied material.
The latest exemption follows the exclusion of secret sections in the police and intelligence departments from the RTI framework. Together, these notifications determine which parts of the state’s internal security and vigilance machinery can be examined through information requests and which records remain outside the Act.
The practical effect of the October 22 notification will depend on how the exemption is applied to requests concerning the T1 and T2 sections. The gazette notification formally restores the two sections’ exempt status after their inclusion under the RTI Act in 2022.
