The Madhya Pradesh High Court has sought a reply from the State Government on a petition challenging its notification on keeping the special police establishment, Lokayukta and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) out of the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The notice was issued by the bench of acting Chief Justice Sushil Harkouli and Justice Alok Aradhe yesterday on the petition filed by Bhopal-based RTI activist Ajay Dubey, who had challenged the notification issued on August 25, 2011.
The activist alleged the State Government has misused Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, 2005 by keeping Lokayukta and EOW out of the purview of the Act “with a mala fide intention“.
Under Section 24(4), only the organisations responsible for intelligence and security can be excluded from the purview of the RTI Act but the special police establishment of Lokayukta and EOW do not come under this category, the petitioner’s counsels S K Agrawal and Rajesh Chand argued.
The petitioner also alleged the State Government has taken this step to “provide shelter to those high officials, whose cases are pending before the Lokayukta and EOW“.
After hearing the petitioner, the bench issued a notice to the State Government and sought its reply on the matter within three weeks.