Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 23 The Keralam government has exempted the T1 and T2 sections of the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) from the RTI Act, with the BJP alleging that the move was aimed at shielding political and bureaucratic corruption.
A recent notification issued by the General Administration Department said the government had decided to bring the two sections of the Directorate of VACB under the exemption granted to state intelligence and security organisations.
The notification was issued under section 24(4) of the RTI Act, 2005, which allows state governments to exempt specified intelligence and security organisations from the purview of the law.
The government had earlier exempted eight state intelligence and security organisations from the RTI Act through an order issued on February 7, 2006, and published in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary on February 10 that year.
The latest notification adds the T1 and T2 sections of the VACB directorate to the list of exempted organisations.
BJP National Secretary K Surendran on Friday strongly criticised the decision, alleging that the V D Satheesan government was attempting to protect corrupt persons by restricting access to information.
In a statement, Surendran said the T1 and T2 sections handled confidential files relating to corruption cases against the chief minister, ministers, political leaders and senior officials. The notification exempting these sections from the RTI Act was undemocratic and a deliberate attempt to promote corruption, he alleged.
He questioned whether the government had taken the decision to sabotage the Vigilance investigation against Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan. He also alleged that the government needed to protect some ministers in the UDF government from the CMRL corruption case.
Surendran expressed concern over the decision to give the Vigilance Director full authority to determine which files would be brought under the T sections, alleging that the provision could be misused to conceal cases that the political leadership wanted to keep secret.
He recalled that when a similar order was issued in 2016 to exempt the T sections, the Kerala High Court had intervened and stayed it. The present government was repeating the same mistake by disregarding the court’s earlier position, he alleged.
Surendran further alleged that the Oommen Chandy government in 2016 and the Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2025 had also attempted to exempt the Vigilance Bureau from the RTI Act.
The LDF and UDF were alike when it comes to protecting corrupt persons and concealing cases, he alleged.
However, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala rejected the allegations, saying the T sections had been exempted because Vigilance investigations required confidentiality.
“Confidentiality is essential for Vigilance investigations and its functioning. The previous government brought the T section under the RTI Act,” he told reporters here.
In reality, the section does not come under the purview of the RTI Act, Chennithala claimed.
(PTI News)
