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Right to Information: Subordinate legislation that exceeded the clear boundaries set by the parent Act

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In Special Police Establishment v. Kamta Prasad Mishra and Others [Neutral Citation: 2026 INSC 644, decided on June 15, 2026], the Supreme Court of India adjudicated an important legal question regarding the scope of state exemptions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. The appeal was preferred by the Special Police Establishment (SPE), Bhopal, against a Madhya Pradesh High Court judgment directing it to disclose information to a former Town Inspector regarding the internal decision-making process for granting sanction to prosecute him under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The SPE and the State Government resisted disclosure by heavily relying on a General Administration Department (GAD) Notification dated August 25, 2011, issued under Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, which excluded the SPE from the purview of the transparency law.

The Supreme Court dismissed the criminal appeal, affirming the High Court’s disclosure directive. A Division Bench comprising Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Atul S. Chandurkar exercised its inherent constitutional powers to examine the legal validity of the state’s exemption notification, despite it not being directly challenged in the lower court. The Court ruled that Section 24(4) of the RTI Act strictly permits State Governments to exempt only specialized “intelligence and security organisations” from the Act’s coverage. Because the statutory architecture of the SPE is explicitly restricted to investigating white-collar crimes and public corruption—such as offenses under the anti-corruption law and specific cheating/breach-of-trust clauses of the Penal Code—it does not possess any foundational operational nexus to state security or intelligence. Consequently, the Court struck down the 2011 Notification to the extent that it exempted the SPE, holding it to be an invalid and excessive piece of subordinate legislation that exceeded the clear boundaries set by the parent RTI Act.

1. Factual Matrix and Origin of the Dispute

  • The Implication and Sanction: The first respondent, Kamta Prasad Mishra, while serving as a Town Inspector in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, was implicated by the SPE in a corruption trap case. Following the registration of an FIR on April 11, 2017, the state’s Home Department granted formal statutory sanction for his criminal prosecution on May 20, 2020.
  • The RTI Request and Rejections: Desiring to understand the internal processing and communications that led to the grant of his prosecution sanction, the respondent filed an RTI request on July 1, 2020, under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act. The public information officer denied the request, and the State Information Commission subsequently rejected his appeal on December 16, 2020, ruling that the records were exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1)(h) of the Act.
  • High Court Intervention: The respondent challenged the refusal before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. A Division Bench allowed his writ petition, observing that because the investigation was already complete and a formal charge-sheet had been filed, disclosing the sanction files would not “impede” any active police or court process under Section 8(1)(h). The SPE was ordered to supply the information, which prompted this appeal to the Supreme Court.

2. Core Legal Issues Formulated

The Supreme Court identified the following primary issues for determination:

  1. Whether the Supreme Court can evaluate the validity of a piece of subordinate legislation (suomotu or contextually) when its operational enforcement is relied upon to deny a statutory right, even if the notification was not explicitly challenged in the original writ petition.
  2. Whether the Special Police Establishment (SPE) of the Lokayukt Organisation qualifies as an “intelligence and security organisation” under the statutory framework of Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, 2005.
  3. Whether the GAD Notification dated August 25, 2011, conforms to the limits of the enabling parent statute or is void due to excessive regulatory execution.

3. Legal Analysis and Ratio Decidendi of the Court

A. Jurisdictional Power to Test Unchallenged Subordinate Rules

The State of Madhya Pradesh argued that because the respondent never explicitly pleaded or asked to strike down the August 25, 2011 Notification before the High Court, the Supreme Court was precluded from reviewing its validity for the first time on appeal.

The Supreme Court rejected this limitation by outlining the scope of its constitutional review powers. Relying on its recent rulings in Bihar Rajya DafadarChaukidar Panchayat (2025) and the foundational principles in Bharathidasan University v. AICTE (2001), the Court held that a constitutional court is bound to ignore an invalid piece of subordinate legislation when a party seeks its active enforcement to deny a right. While the absence of specific pleadings generally limits typical reviews—as noted in Union of India v. ManjuraniRoutray (2023)—the Court cured this procedural gap by providing extensive opportunities and time to the state’s Advocate General to formally defend and argue the notification’s statutory standing.

B. The True Definition of “Intelligence and Security”

The Court reviewed the structure of Section 24 of the RTI Act, noting that Section 24(1) completely excludes Central Government intelligence and security units listed in the Second Schedule (such as the Enforcement Directorate, CRPF, BSF, and NIA) from the Act’s purview. Section 24(4) extends this exact executive privilege to corresponding agencies established by State Governments.

The Court held that the phrase “intelligence and security” implies that an organization must be fundamentally empowered to handle matters of state safety, counter-espionage, border control, or internal stability. The state’s argument that “institutional parity” allowed them to blanket-exempt their primary anti-corruption police force was rejected.

C. The Narrow Statutory Mandate of the SPE

To determine whether the SPE possessed a security or intelligence character, the Bench dissected its parent acts and operational history:

  • The SPE Framework: Formed under the Madhya Pradesh Special Police Establishment Act, 1947, the SPE’s jurisdiction is strictly limited by state notifications issued under Section 3 of that Act.
  • The Operational Notifications: Reviewing historical notifications spanning 1959, 1989, 2000, and the operational notification of May 3, 2001, the Court observed that the SPE’s mandate is explicitly restricted to investigating offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, alongside Sections 409 (breach of trust by public servants) and 420 (cheating) of the Penal Code.
  • The Lokayukt Connection: Under the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukt Evam Up-LokayuktAdhiniyam, 1981, the SPE functions under the superintendence of the Lokayukt to look into “allegations” of public corruption.

The Court observed that neither the Lokayukt nor the SPE has ever been given statutory jurisdiction to oversee intelligence gather-points or internal state security. Citing the Allahabad High Court precedent in Dr. Nutan Thakur (2017), which struck down a similar anti-transparency exemption for the Uttar Pradesh Lokayukt, the Supreme Court ruled that an investigative agency focused on financial crimes and corruption cannot be classified as an intelligence and security organization.

4. Final Judgment and Structural Directions

  • High Court Order Affirmed: The Supreme Court dismissed the criminal appeal, sustaining the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order directing the disclosure of the requested information to the respondent within the mandated timeline.
  • Exemption Struck Down: The General Administration Department’s Notification dated August 25, 2011, to the extent that it purports to exclude the Madhya Pradesh Special Police Establishment from the application of the RTI Act, 2005, is officially struck down as excessive and bad in law[cite: 17].
  • Section 8(1)(h) Restriction Removed: The Court confirmed that because the investigation against the respondent was complete and a charge-sheet had been filed, the SPE cannot use the Section 8(1)(h) exemption clause to withhold historical sanction files[cite: 17].
  • Economic Offences Left Intact: The Court explicitly clarified that it did not examine or adjudicate the validity of the 2011 Notification regarding the State Bureau of Investigation of Economic Offences[cite: 17]. The notification remains fully operational for that bureau[cite: 17].
  • Interlocutory Applications: All pending connected interlocutory applications were formally disposed of along with the final order[cite: 17].

2026 INSC 644

Special Police Establishment V. Kamta Prasad Mishra And Others (D.O.J. 15.06.2026)

2026 INSC 644 click here to view full text of judgment

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Admissibility of Deceased Witness Testimony Against Absconding Accused

July 18, 2026 No Comments

Supreme Court allowed the appeals filed by the State of West Bengal, ruling that the deposition of a deceased witness recorded in an earlier trial is admissible in a subsequent trial against an absconding accused, provided the requirements of Section 299 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) are met. The Court clarified that the provision serves to preserve evidence when an accused deliberately absconds, preventing them from benefiting from the unavailability of material witnesses due to the passage of time. The Court set aside the High Court’s order, which had denied the admission of the victim’s testimony, confirming that the statutory preconditions—the accused absconding and no immediate prospect of arrest—were satisfied at the time the witness deposed.

  • Background: In a 2012 gang-rape case, the respondent and another accused were absconding while three others were tried and convicted. The victim, a key witness, testified in the first trial but passed away in 2015. After the respondent was arrested in 2016, the prosecution sought to admit the victim’s earlier deposition as evidence under Section 33 of the Indian Evidence Act read with Section 299 of the CrPC.
  • High Court Order: The High Court of Calcutta had rejected the application, observing that the prosecution had a duty to obtain a specific direction from the Trial Court to record evidence against the absconder during the first trial, and thus the earlier deposition could not be used against the respondent.
  • Interpretation of Section 299 CrPC: The Supreme Court held that Section 299 CrPC acts as an exception to the general rule requiring a witness to be examined in the presence of the accused. It does not mandate a formal, prior order from a Magistrate to record that the accused is absconding; rather, what is relevant is whether the conditions—that the accused is absconding and there is no immediate prospect of arrest—were established at the time the evidence was recorded.
  • Preventing Misuse of Process: The Court reasoned that taking a restrictive view of Section 299 would jeopardize the criminal justice system by incentivizing accused persons to wilfully abscond and await the death or unavailability of material witnesses.
  • Application to Facts: The Court noted that the respondent was a declared absconder when the victim’s testimony was recorded (2013), and he remained at large until his arrest in 2016. As the two essential conditions of Section 299(1) were met, the deceased victim’s evidence is admissible in the trial against the respondent.

Legislative Continuity: The Court noted that the legislature has maintained this principle in Section 335 of the recently enacted Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, reinforcing the intent to ensure evidence is preserved against those who evade trial.

2026 INSC 718

The State of West Bengal v. Kader Khan – (D.O.J. 17.07.2026)

2026 INSC 718 click here to view full text of judgment

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Insolvency and Bankruptcy: Finality of Resolution Plans and Extinguishment of Sub-judice Claims

July 18, 2026 No Comments

Supreme Court allowed the appeals filed by the Successful Resolution Applicant (Appellant-SRA), ruling that upon the approval of a Resolution Plan under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), all claims—including those pending adjudication (sub-judice)—that are not specifically provided for in the plan stand extinguished. The Court held that the “clean slate” doctrine is fundamental to the IBC, preventing unresolved or contingent claims from resurfacing and undermining the revival of the corporate debtor. Consequently, the Court set aside the High Court orders and dismissed the civil suit and arbitration proceedings initiated by operational creditors, affirming that they are bound by the terms of the approved Resolution Plan.

  • Background: The Appellant-SRA challenged Bombay High Court orders that allowed a civil recovery suit and arbitration proceedings to continue against the corporate debtor (Bhushan Steel Limited) despite the approval of its Resolution Plan. The respondents, operational creditors, sought to pursue claims that were pending at the time of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).
  • Treatment of Claims: During the CIRP, the Resolution Professional admitted the respondents’ disputed claims at a notional value of Rupee One (1) each. The approved Resolution Plan stipulated that because the liquidation value was NIL, no amounts were due to operational creditors; however, a settlement fund was provided for those with admitted claims.
  • The “Clean Slate” Doctrine: The Court emphasized that a successful resolution applicant must start on a “clean slate,” free from “hydra-headed” surprise claims. Once a Resolution Plan is approved under Section 31(1) of the IBC, it becomes binding on all stakeholders, and claims not incorporated therein are deemed extinguished, withdrawn, or abated.
  • Finality of the Plan: The Court noted that the Final List of Creditors attained finality, and the respondents could not seek to reopen or question the commercial wisdom of the Committee of Creditors after the plan’s approval. The Court found no merit in the allegations of fraud, noting that no proceedings had been initiated under Rule 11 of the NCLT Rules to challenge the plan’s integrity.
  • No Express Carve-out: Upon a harmonious reading of the Resolution Plan, the Court concluded there was no express “carve-out” protecting sub-judice claims from extinguishment. The plan explicitly mandated that all legal proceedings relating to the period prior to the effective date stand extinguished, except to the extent of the specific settlement amount provided.
  • Observation on MSMEs: In an “Afterword,” the Court observed that the current insolvency framework does not adequately account for the position of small operational creditors and MSMEs, who are often placed at the bottom of the repayment waterfall. The Court suggested that the Legislature and Law Commission examine this to ensure a more balanced repayment mechanism.
  • Outcome: The Court allowed the appeals, set aside the contrary High Court orders, and dismissed the pending civil suit and arbitration proceedings, enforcing the finality of the Resolution Plan.

2026 INSC 717

M/S Tata Steel Ltd. v. Varsha & Anr. (D.O.J. 17.07.2026)

2026 INSC 717 click here to view full text of judgment

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Excluding Nominated Members from Local Authority Elections

July 18, 2026 No Comments

The Supreme Court upheld the High Court of Karnataka’s decision to exclude nominated members of Town Panchayats from participating in Legislative Council elections for Local Authorities’ Constituencies. The Court ruled that under the constitutional framework established by the 74th Amendment (Part IX-A), nominated members, who serve only in an advisory capacity, lack the democratic mandate of elected representatives. Consequently, their inclusion in the electoral roll was declared unconstitutional, and the Court affirmed the direction to conduct a recount of votes after segregating the invalid votes cast by these nominated members.

  • Background: The election to the Karnataka Legislative Council (Chikkamagaluru Local Authorities Constituency) was challenged because 12 nominated members from four Town Panchayats were included in the electoral roll and participated in the voting. The appellant, who won by a narrow margin of 6 votes, contended that the electoral roll’s finality should be respected.
  • Constitutional Interpretation: The Court held that while Article 171(3)(a) mentions “members” of local authorities, this must be interpreted through the lens of the 74th Constitutional Amendment. Article 243-R establishes that while nominated members may be appointed for their expertise, they are expressly barred from voting in municipal meetings, underscoring their advisory rather than representative role.
  • Democratic Representation: The Supreme Court emphasized that allowing nominated members to vote in Legislative Council elections would undermine the democratic nature of the electoral process, as they are not democratically elected. The Court affirmed that “members” in the context of electoral colleges refers to democratically elected representatives.
  • Finality of Electoral Rolls: While acknowledging the principle that electoral rolls typically attain finality, the Court distinguished this case by noting that the inclusion of the nominated members was void ab initio and unconstitutional. Therefore, the finality of the roll could not be used to validate an illegality that strikes at the core of the electoral college’s composition.
  • Secrecy of the Ballot: The Court rejected the argument that segregating these votes would violate the secrecy of the ballot. It maintained that the higher constitutional goal of preserving free and fair elections and ensuring the purity of the electoral process outweighs the requirement for absolute secrecy in this specific context.
  • Outcome: The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and affirmed the High Court’s orders. The Court directed the authorities to proceed with the consequential actions based on the recount results already obtained, ensuring that the election outcome reflects only the valid votes cast by elected representatives.

2026 INSC 716

Pranesh M.K. v. Shanthegowda & Ors. – (D.O.J. 16.07.2026)

2026 INSC 716 click here to view full text of judgment

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Railway: Establishing Liability in Untoward Railway Incidents

July 18, 2026 No Comments

The Supreme Court set aside the concurrent dismissal of a compensation claim by the Railway Claims Tribunal and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. The Court held that when a passenger dies in an “untoward incident” (falling from a running train), the absence of a recovered ticket does not automatically negate the status of a bona fide passenger. Emphasizing the “no-fault liability” principle under Section 124A of the Railways Act, 1989, the Court ruled that once the claimant establishes the foundational facts through an affidavit, the burden shifts to the Railways. Technical lapses and the inability to recover personal belongings should not defeat the humanitarian and welfare objectives of the legislation.

  • Background: The appellant filed a claim for compensation following the death of her husband, who fell from a running train while traveling from Raipur to Ahmedabad. The Railway Claims Tribunal and the High Court previously rejected the claim, citing a lack of proof regarding the deceased being a bona fide passenger (specifically due to the missing ticket).
  • Legal Principle (No-Fault Liability): The Court reiterated that Section 124A of the 1989 Act is a beneficial, “no-fault” provision. It is designed to provide expeditious relief to victims of untoward incidents without requiring proof of negligence by the Railway Administration.
  • Burden of Proof: Relying on Union of India v. Rina Devi and Doli Rani Saha v. Union of India, the Court clarified that:
    • The mere absence of a ticket does not disprove that a person was a bona fide
    • The initial burden is on the claimant, which is sufficiently discharged by filing an affidavit stating the facts.
    • Once this is done, the burden shifts to the Railways to disprove the claim based on attending circumstances.
  • Operational Concerns: The Court highlighted the critical issue of chronic overcrowding in Indian Railways. It noted that while the Railway Manuals contain detailed safety and ticketing protocols, the execution often fails. The Court suggested that Railways should increase manpower to better manage safety and ticketing, which could simultaneously reduce such tragedies and provide employment.
  • Constitutional Perspective: The Court observed that using terms like “second class passenger” is outdated and potentially offensive to the spirit of the Constitution of India; it suggested that class designations should refer to the “coach” rather than the “passenger.”

Decision: The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and set aside the lower court judgments. It ordered the Railways to pay compensation of ₹8,00,000 to the appellant within four weeks, failing which the amount would attract interest at 8% from the date of the original claim filing.

2026 INSC 715

Lata v. Union of India & Anr. – (D.O.J. 17.07.2026)

2026 INSC 715 click here to view full text of judgment

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