Overview
- A government gazette notification dated October 22 added the T1 and T2 sections of the Vigilance and Anti‑Corruption Bureau to the list of bodies exempted under Section 24(4) of the Right to Information Act.
- BJP national secretary K. Surendran said the move was timed to shield political leaders and officials facing corruption probes and warned that giving the Vigilance Director discretion to classify files could be abused.
- Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala defended the decision as necessary to protect the confidentiality of intelligence and investigation work and said the sections do not practically fall under RTI scrutiny.
- Section 24(4) allows state exemptions but excludes information on corruption and human rights violations, and past Kerala litigation that prompted a 2016 High Court stay and a 2022 rescission makes further court challenges likely.
- The change narrows public access to intelligence reports and confidential Vigilance files, which could affect transparency in ongoing probes and trigger judicial review that will test how corruption‑related records are protected from blanket exemptions.