Apka Adhikar

RTI: Exemptions 8 (1)(b) and (c) read as follows:

(b) information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;

(c) information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;

These two exemptions are self-explanatory are very unlikely to be abused by the government officials. FOIA: It has no such explicit exemptions but these exemptions are implied. There is no reason to believe that such information will not be exempted from disclosure if any such case is ever litigated. FOIA has exemptions 5 U.S.C. §552(b) 2 and 3, which read as follows:

(2) related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency;

(3) specifically exempted from disclosure by statute (other than section 552b of this title), provided that such statute,

(A) requires that the matters be withheld from the public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue, or

(B) establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld;

The first of these two exemptions relate to employment records, vacation schedules and others records that are not likely to be of public interest. US government routinely discloses name, rank, office address and salary of all civilian employees. Before September 11, 2001, US government also disclosed same information about member of armed services stationed in US. However, after 9/11 US government has refused to provide this information about members of armed services. The second exemption applies to records that are specifically exempted by Acts of Congress. The government agency has to publish a yearly report as to which records are protected under which statute. These reports are available on Dept. of Justice USA, web site.