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+====== Bhagat Singh v. Chief Information Commissioner (2007) ======
+{{htmlmetatags>metatag-keywords=(Bhagat Singh CIC Delhi High Court, Bhagat Singh RTI, investigation pending RTI, Section 8(1)(h) Delhi HC, bhagat singh income tax RTI, rti right to information india)
+metatag-description=(Landmark Delhi High Court judgment in Bhagat Singh v. Chief Information Commissioner (2007) — narrow reading of Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act and the principle that investigation-pending exemptions must be specific, not generic.)}}
+{{page>snippets:dpdp-banner}}
+<WRAP center round didyouknow 95%>
+**Did you know?** //Bhagat Singh// was one of the very first writ-court articulations of the RTI Act's default-disclosure principle, decided less than two years after the Act came into force. Its language — "the Right to Information Act is an important statute aimed at curtailing the culture of secrecy" — is still quoted in Commission orders today.
+</WRAP>
+<WRAP center round info 95%>
+**In one line.** The Delhi High Court held that an income-tax investigation pending against the petitioner's wife could not be used as a blanket shield under **Section 8(1)(h)** to deny the petitioner access to the investigation report — once the assessment order had been passed, the investigation was effectively over, and disclosure could not impede what had already concluded.
+**What that means in practice.**
+  * Section 8(1)(h) ("would impede the process of investigation, apprehension, or prosecution") requires a **specific, present impediment** — not a generic "investigation pending" label.
+  * Once the investigation reaches a conclusion (assessment, charge sheet, closure report), the exemption falls away.
+  * **Default disclosure** is the Act's animating principle.
+</WRAP>
+===== Citation =====
+//Bhagat Singh v. Chief Information Commissioner and Ors.//, W.P. (C) No. 3114/2007.\\
+**Bench:** Justice Ravindra Bhat.\\
+**Date of judgment:** 3 December 2007.\\
+**Court:** High Court of Delhi.
+===== The facts =====
+The petitioner sought, under the RTI Act, the **investigation report** prepared by the Income Tax Department in connection with a proceeding involving his wife. He also sought **copies of the tax evasion petition** against her.
+The CPIO refused, citing **Section 8(1)(h)** — that disclosure would impede the process of investigation. The First Appellate Authority and the Central Information Commission upheld the refusal. The petitioner approached the Delhi High Court under Article 226.
+===== The Court's reasoning =====
+==== Section 8(1)(h) requires specific impediment ====
+Justice Ravindra Bhat held that the investigation in question had already **concluded** — the assessment had been passed. Whatever "investigation" existed for purposes of Section 8(1)(h) was over. The CPIO could not invoke the clause as a general shield for all records connected to a historical investigation.
+The Court reasoned: the Act uses the words "**would impede**" — a future tense, requiring the PIO to show **how disclosure would actually impede an ongoing process**. A closed investigation cannot be impeded.
+==== Disclosure is the rule; exemption is the exception ====
+In language that is still quoted today, the Court observed:
+> //"The Right to Information Act is an important statute aimed at curtailing the culture of secrecy... The disclosure of information is the rule. The exemptions listed in Section 8 are an exception."//
+==== Remand for specific reasoning ====
+The Court remanded the matter to the CIC with a direction that the Information Commission must **examine each document** sought and give **specific reasons** for any refusal — a generic invocation of Section 8(1)(h) was not acceptable.
+===== Why it matters =====
+  * **Blueprint for writ-court review of RTI refusals.** //Bhagat Singh// established the template that High Courts across India have since used when reviewing RTI refusals — demand specific reasoning from the Commission, not accept generic exemption labels.
+  * **Narrow reading of Section 8(1)(h).** PIOs cannot use "investigation pending" as a permanent shield. See [[explanations:pendency-of-investigation|Pendency of investigation]] and [[explanations:investigation-under-rti|Investigation under RTI]].
+  * **Default-disclosure principle.** The Court's formulation — "disclosure is the rule; exemption is the exception" — is invoked in Commission orders when weighing any Section 8 refusal.
+===== Related on this site =====
+  * [[:act|The RTI Act, 2005 — current text]]. Section 8(1)(h).
+  * [[explanations:pendency-of-investigation|Pendency of investigation — Section 8(1)(h)]].
+  * [[explanations:investigation-under-rti|Investigation under RTI]].
+  * [[explanations:justification-for-denial-under-rti|Justification for denial under RTI]].
+  * [[explanations:grounds-for-rejection|Grounds for rejection]].
+  * [[important-decisions:cbse-and-anr-vs-aditya-bandopadhyay|CBSE v. Aditya Bandopadhyay (2011)]].
+  * [[important-decisions:start|Case law library]].
+===== Status vs the 14 November 2025 DPDP amendment =====
+//Bhagat Singh// engages **Section 8(1)(h)**, which was **not** touched by the DPDP Rules, 2025. The judgment remains fully good law. Its proportionality-adjacent reasoning on "specific impediment" also aligns well with the //Puttaswamy// framework applied to other clauses.
+===== Sources =====
+  - //Bhagat Singh v. Chief Information Commissioner and Ors.//, W.P. (C) No. 3114/2007, High Court of Delhi, decided 3 December 2007.
+  - The Right to Information Act, 2005, Sections 8(1)(h), 19.
+===== Last reviewed on =====
+April 2026
+{{tag>rti case-law delhi-high-court section-8-1-h investigation-pending bhagat-singh 2007}}

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