Kerala keeps the Vigilance Bureau's T branch outside the Right to Information Act

27 October 2026

A gazette notification of the Government of Kerala has taken the first and second sections of the T, or Top Secret, branch of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau out of the reach of the Right to Information Act, 2005. The power used is Section 24(4) of the Act, which allows a State Government to notify intelligence and security organisations it has established as exempt; the same provision keeps information on allegations of corruption and of human rights violations within the Act's reach. The T branch handles sensitive material, including intelligence reports and confidential reports on government officials. Kerala had first exempted the branch in 2016 and rescinded that notification in 2022 after it was challenged in the Kerala High Court by the Indian Association of Lawyers and the Aam Aadmi Party. Other bodies Kerala keeps outside the Act include the Special Branch CID, the Crime Branch CID, the Crime Record Bureaus, the Police Telecommunication Unit, the State and regional Forensic Science Laboratories and the Finger Print Bureau.