Intelligence Bureau: Exempted From RTI
The Delhi High Court recently ruled that the Intelligence Bureau stands exempted from the rigours of RTI Act by virtue of Section 24 (Act not to apply to certain organisations) thereof.
- IB is an internal intelligence agency of India that is used to gather intelligence from within India and also execute counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism tasks.
- In addition to domestic intelligence responsibilities, the IB is particularly tasked with intelligence collection in border areas, following the 1951 recommendations of the Himmatsinhji Committee (also known as the North and North-East Border Committee), a task entrusted to military intelligence organizations, prior to independence in 1947.
- It comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- The IB activities are highly confidential, and no publications other than the internal ones reveal their arcane workings.
