Exemption 8(1)(a)
RTI: Exemption 8 (1)(a) reads as follows:
8.(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen,—
(a) information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence;
FOIA: There is one exemption in FOIA for defense, diplomatic and other state secrets.
5 USC 552 (b)(1) Exemption reads as follows:
(A) specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and
(B) are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order;
There is not a whole lot of litigation in this area. Some cases in 1980s ruled that government agencies had the sole power to classify documents as secret documents, and that courts had no power to second-guess the agencies. In response to this, Congress (US Parliament) modified FOIA to allow courts to examine the disputed records to determine if the records really deserve a classification as state secrets. There is a well-defined process and rules as to which documents can be classified as confidential, secret or top secret, and by whom. It is noteworthy that law allows government to reclassify a non-secret document as secret after a FOIA request is made for its disclosure. But the requester can file suit in federal court challenging the validity of such a reclassification. The federal judge may then look at the document, in camera, to make sure that the reclassification was done for proper reasons. The law says that hiding government mistakes or embarrassing details are not reasons to call a document secret.