RTI Act supersedes Official Secrets Law

Delivering a separate judgment in the Rafale case, Justice K.M. Joseph has made the following observations:

The Right to Information Act confers on ordinary citizens the ‘priceless right’ to demand information even in the matters affecting national security and relations with a foreign state.

Justice Joseph’s judgment countered the claim made by government for privilege over Rafale purchase documents under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), saying it affected national security and relations with the France.

Justice Joseph said the Right to Information (RTI) Act overawes the OSA.

Under the Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, the government cannot refuse information if disclosure in public interest overshadows certain ‘protected interests.’

Justice Joseph in his judgment has stated that through Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, the Parliament has appreciated that it may be necessary to pit one interest against another and to compare the relative harm and then decide either to disclose or to decline information. If the higher public interest is established, it is the will of Parliament that the greater good should prevail though at the cost of lesser harm being still occasioned.