New Delhi Oct 17 PTI The Supreme Court has directed the Delhi High Court to decide the applicability of the Right to Information RTI Act to intelligence and security organisations of the government while setting aside its order directing a department to furnish information to an employee on seniority and promotionsA bench of Justices M R Shah and A S Bopanna said the high court passed the directions without deciding the objection of the government department that the RTI Act was not applicable to itIt is the specific case on behalf of the Department that the RTI Act was not applicable to the organisationdepartment Despite the above and without deciding such an objection the high court has directed the appellant to furnish the documents sought under the RTI Act without deciding the applicability of the RTI Act That will be putting the cart before the horse the bench saidThe apex court said the high court ought to have decided the issue with respect to the applicability of the RTI Act to the organisation or department firstWe direct the high court to first decide the issue with respect to the applicability of the RTI Act to the appellant organisationdepartment and thereafter decide the stay applicationLPA The aforesaid exercise shall be completed within a period of eight weeks the bench said in its recent orderThe top court was hearing an appeal filed by the Centre against the 2018 decision of the high court which directed the department to provide information to the employee within 15 daysThe counsel appearing on behalf of the Centre had told the high court that the Department from which information was sought is exempted as per Section 241 of the RTI Act 2005 Therefore the order of the CIC is illegal and contradictory to the provisions of the Section 24 of the RTI ActSection 24 of the RTI Act exempts certain intelligence and security organisations from the ambit of the transparency law except for information pertaining to allegations of corruption and human rights violationsThe high court had said that since the employee was facing prejudices regarding seniority he sought information mentioned above and that the information neither hampers with intelligence nor security nor secrecy of the petitioner organisationThough the petitioner organisation is kept away from RTI Act but that is not regarding the information to its employee if any of his rights have been deniedThe information sought by the respondent from the petitioner does not come under Section 24 of the Act the high court had said PTI PKS DV DV