EHTESHAM QUTUBUDDIN SIDDIQUE Vs. CPIO, INTELLIGENCE BUREAU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner has been convicted and sentenced to death in the Mumbai Twin Blast known as 7/11 bomb blast case which took place in the year 2006. The Petitioner was Accused No.4. The Petitioner was sentenced to a punishment of death for an offence under Sec. 302 of the IPC, under Sec. 3(b) of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and under Sec. 3(1)(i) of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, 1999 and apart from this, the Petitioner had also been sentenced for various offences under the provision of IPC.

(2.) The Petitioner in this Writ Petition had made an RTI application, on the 4/9/2017, to the CPIO Intelligence Bureau seeking a copy of an alleged Intelligence Bureau report, suggesting false implication and arrest of accused persons, placed before the Ministry of Home Affairs in the year 2009 for review of evidence in the bomb blast case. The information as sought for by the Petitioner was rejected by the CPIO, Ministry of Home Affairs, vide a letter dtd. 21/9/2017, on the ground that the agency from which the information was sought for by the Petitioner is exempted from the purview of the RTI Act under Sec. 24(1).

(3.) The Petitioner proceeded to file a first appeal under Sec. 19(1) of the RTI Act with the designated First Appellate Authority (FAA), on 23/10/2017. It is pertinent to mention here that the Petitioner before the authority, has pleaded that Sec. 24(1) of the RTI Act would not apply as his case is one of human rights violation and that is the information sought is respect of an alleged human right violation. The Petitioner further adds that the officers involved in the investigation of the Twin Blast case were awarded various medals and other monetary benefits for the arrest of innocent persons, an act of corruption that the Petitioner alleges pertains to allegations of corruption and hence cannot be excluded under Sec. 24(1) of the RTI Act. In its response dtd. 15/11/2017, the FAA, rejected the appeal of the Petitioner on the grounds that the order of the CPIO, Intelligence Bureau, was in according the provisions of the RTI Act.