Table of Contents
Section 22 override versus state secrecy law — SC 2024
Supreme Court of India · 2024-11-05 · (2024) 11 SCC 88 · ★ Landmark
RTI §22 overrides any state-level secrecy law inconsistent with disclosure.
Case details
| Court | Supreme Court of India |
|---|---|
| Decided | 2024-11-05 |
| Citation | (2024) 11 SCC 88 |
| Bench | S, a, n, j, i, v, , K, h, a, n, n, a, ,, , D, i, p, a, n, k, a, r, , D, a, t, t, a, , J, J |
| Petitioner | State of Karnataka |
| Respondent | Nagesh B. |
| RTI Act sections | §22 |
| Outcome | Rejected |
Outcome
Karnataka state secrecy statute cannot defeat §22 of the RTI Act, which has constitutional-overriding effect.
Ratio decidendi
The Karnataka Public Security Act, 2017 insofar as it purported to seal routine administrative records falls foul of §22 of the RTI Act, 2005. §22 has overriding effect on the Official Secrets Act, 1923 and on anything inconsistent in any other law in force, state or central. The state statute must yield to the extent of inconsistency.
Keywords
section 22, overriding effect, state secrecy, Karnataka, federalism
Similar cases in the corpus
These rulings have the closest editorial ratio to this case — computed by tf-idf cosine similarity over ratio, keywords and Act sections. Useful starting points if you are researching the same point of law.
- §22 vs. Official Secrets Act (SC 2016)
- Cooperative societies — Karnataka HC (HC-KAR 2019)
- RTI § 22 harmony with special laws (SC 2020)
- rtionline.gov.in vs State portal — CIC (CIC 2022)
Related
Editorial summary, not a certified report. The ratio here is an editorial compression. Before citing this ruling in a PIO order, FAA speaking order, or any appellate filing, verify against the full reported decision. RTI Wiki is not a legal service.
Editorial summary · last reviewed 21 April 2026.
Discussion