Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has issued an official notification exempting the intelligence wings of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The action was taken under statutory provisions that allow security and intelligence agencies to be excluded from RTI disclosures, following similar exemptions previously granted to specific secret units within the police and state intelligence.

The exemption applies to two primary sections -T1 and T2- which handle highly sensitive vigilance information. The T1 section manages annual confidential reports of ministerial, executive and legal officers within the bureau, high-security personal files and top-secret documentation. The T2 section processes the weekly diaries of vigilance officers and critical source reports.

These confidential sections were initially excluded when the RTI Act came into effect in 2005. However, in 2022, the T1 and T2 units were brought under the RTI purview. The latest order reverses that earlier decision, re-imposing the exemption. The official Gazette notification regarding this order was published on October 22.

The decision has sparked allegations that the exemption was re-established after a vigilance investigation report concerning the Chief Minister was disclosed through an RTI query. Government sources, however, dismissed the allegations as baseless, clarifying that the notification was issued as part of routine administrative procedures.