Blanket ban on records related to tax evasion cases is not the "best policy" adopted by the investigation wing of the Income Tax department, the Central Information Commission has said.

Blanket ban on records related to tax evasion cases is not the "best policy" adopted by the investigation wing of the Income Tax department, the Central Information Commission has said.

The case related to one Ashok Kumar Gupta who had sought information related to action taken on his

letters in which he had alleged evasion of Income Tax.
Not giving any information, the Income Tax department told him that the investigation department is listed as an exempted organisation under section 24 of the RTI Act.

Section 24 says "nothing contained in this Act shall apply to the intelligence and security organisations specified in the Second Schedule, being organisations established by the central government or any information furnished by such organisations to that government."

However, the information related the allegations of corruption and human rights violations are excluded.

Information Commissioner Rajiv Mathur said, "The Commission has been of the view that though the Office of DGIT (Inv) is an exempted organisation, a blanket ban on disclosure of information regarding action taken on a tax evasion petition is not the best policy and that some sort of feedback should be provided to the person who provides information."

He directed the department to apprise Gupta of the broad outcome of the investigation, once it is completed, without giving any specific details.