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Special Police Establishment v. Kamta Prasad Mishra

Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 644Decided 15 Jun 2026
Crl.A. No.-003743-003743 - 2024
Justice J.K. Maheshwari · Justice Atul S. Chandurkar · Justice S.V.N. Bhatti

Background

The first respondent, a Town Inspector, was implicated in a corruption trap case by the Special Police Establishment (SPE), Madhya Pradesh's anti-corruption wing under the Lokayukt, and sanction for his prosecution was granted in 2020. He sought information under the RTI Act about how that sanction decision was made, but the request was denied on the ground that a 2011 government notification exempted the SPE, as an "intelligence and security organisation", from the RTI Act's application under Section 24(4). The State Information Commission upheld the denial, but the Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled in the respondent's favour, holding that since the criminal investigation was already complete, the information could not be withheld, and directed disclosure. The SPE appealed to the Supreme Court against that direction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the SPE's statutory jurisdiction under the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukt Act, 1981, finding it limited to investigating specific corruption-related offences (under the Prevention of Corruption Act and certain Penal Code provisions) and not extending to matters of "intelligence" or "security." The Court held that an organisation can only be exempted under Section 24(4) of the RTI Act if it is genuinely an intelligence or security body, and the SPE's narrow statutory mandate did not meet that description merely because a government notification labelled it so. It therefore struck down the 2011 notification to the extent it purported to exclude the SPE from the RTI Act's coverage, calling it excessive and beyond the scope of Section 24(4). The Court upheld the High Court's judgment directing disclosure of the requested information and dismissed the SPE's appeal, while clarifying it had not examined the notification's effect on a separate agency, the State Bureau of Investigation of Economic Offences.

Lesson Learnt

A government cannot exempt an agency from the Right to Information Act simply by labelling it an "intelligence and security organisation" in a notification: the exemption applies only if the agency's actual statutory functions genuinely involve intelligence or security work. Citizens facing prosecution or affected by an agency's decisions may be entitled to information about the process behind those decisions, especially once the underlying investigation is complete.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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