Public Interest Immunity Claim Procedure
- April 11, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Public Interest Immunity Claim Procedure
Subject : Polity
Section: Judiciary
Concept :
- The Supreme Court has expressed dissatisfaction with so-called “sealed cover jurisprudence” and has developed a process for “public interest immunity claims” as a less restrictive option for handling claims containing state secrets.
Background
- The Kerala High Court’s decision upholding the order from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry decision to block MediaOne, a Malayalam news channel, from airing its programming was overturned by the Supreme Court.
- The High Court’s ruling was based on information that the Home Ministry had only disclosed to it in a “sealed cover.”
- The Supreme Court has frequently expressed dissatisfaction with so-called “sealed cover jurisprudence” and has developed a process for “public interest immunity claims” as a less severe option for handling state secret cases.
Public interest immunity claim
- The Supreme Court ruled that the following criteria must be used to determine whether a claim concerning issues of national security is valid:
- Whether there is sufficient evidence to conclude that information secrecy serves the interests of national security.
- Whether a reasonable person would make the same conclusion from the evidence.
- The court suggested that secret elements of the document be censored and a summary of the document’s contents be supplied to fairly exclude materials following a successful public interest immunity claim.
For further notes on Sealed Cover Jurisprudence, refer – https://optimizeias.com/sealed-cover-jurisprudence/