Right to Information Act,2005

Right to Information Act,2005

What is RTI ACT ?

• The Right to Information (RTI) ACT was passed in 2005 by the Parliament.
• It was aimed to ensure public access to records of governments and public offices.
• It came as a vital tool to help activists and individuals ensure transparency and accountability in governance.

Salient Features of RTI ACT,2005 :

• All citizens of India possess the Right to Information under this act, subject to provisions of the act.
• Information can be obtained within 30 days from the date of request in normal case from the ‘public authority’.
• If it is a matter of life and liberty of a person, it can be obtained within 48hrs from the date of request.
• The Public Information Officers/Assistant Public Information Officers will be responsible to deal with the requests for information and also to assist persons seeking information.
• It protects the fundamental rights to Freedom of Expression and Speech under Article 19(1)(a) and Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 guaranteed by the Constitution.
• Certain categories of information have been exempted from disclosure under Section 8 and 9 of the Act.
  • Section 8- encapsulates that information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual, unless the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer or the Appellate Authority is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information should be exempted from disclosure. Further, the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or the State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.
  • Section 9- An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question.
• Intelligence and security agencies specified in Schedule II to the Act have been exempted from the ambit of the Act, subject to certain conditions.

Exempted organisations :

As per section 24 of the Act, intelligence and security organisations, both central and state, are exempted from the RTI Act except in cases of corruption or human rights violation.

Such central organisations are listed in schedule 2 of the Act. The schedule has been amended four times, in September 2005, March 2008, October 2008 and May 2021.

• Intelligence Bureau
• Research and Analysis Wingincluding its technical wing, Aviation Research Centre
• Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
• Central Economic Intelligence Bureau
• Directorate of Enforcement
• Narcotics Control Bureau
• Special Frontier Force
• Border Security Force
• Central Reserve Police Force
• Indo-Tibetan Border Police
• Central Industrial Security Force
• National Security Guard
• Assam Rifles
• Sashastra Seema Bal
• Directorate General of Income-tax (Investigation)
• National Technical Research Organisation
• Financial Intelligence Unit, India
• Special Protection Group
• Defence Research and Development Organisation
• Border Roads Organisation
• National Security Council Secretariat (secretariat of the National Security Council, in the Cabinet Secretariat)

Recent amendment- RTI (amendment) ACT, 2019 :

• It provided that theChief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner (of Centre and States) shall hold office for such term as prescribed by the Central Government. Before the 2019 amendment, their term was fixed for 5 years.
• It provided that the salary, allowances and other service conditions of the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner(of Centre and States) shall be such as decided by the Central Government.
  • Before this amendment, the salary, allowances and other service conditions of the Chief Information Commissioner were same to that of the Chief Election Commissioner and that of an Information Commissioner were similar to those of an Election Commissioner (State Election Commissioners in case of States).
• It also removed the provisions related to the deductions in salary of CIC, and IC with respect to the pension or any other retirement benefits received by them.

Issues in RTI ACT :

• There are cases of rejection of information requests made by activists on matters of public importance.
• Lack of interest on what public interest is and right to privacy and section -8 of the act.
• The state of Odisha always rejects the RTI appeals in the pretext of incorrect format of application.
• There is no consensus regarding the amount of fees to be paid and the format in which it is to be paid among various RTI officials. Example- BIHAR, JHARKHAND and ODISHA.
• Inability of public authorities to disclose information in suo-motu manner.
• Large backlog and delay in disclosing of cases due to multiple reasons.
  • Due to large vacancies in number of Information Commissioners at central level.
  • Due to incomplete,poor and inaccurate information , filing the first appeal increases significantly.
  • Due to ineffective management and procedures to collect information from offices leads to delays.

BEST PRACTICES UNDER RTI ACT :-

           JAN-SOOCHNA PORTAL-

• Initiative of Rajasthan government.
• It tries to give information about 13 government oraganisations in suo motu manner.
• Information kiosksin village panchayatsand self-service e-Mitra centres in the towns will be established to enable the people to access the information.

WAY FORWARD

• To ensure proper working of the RTI act, the independence of officials should be promoted.
• There should be a proper mechanism for filing of cases and the amount of fees to be paid.
• Suo-motu declaration by the organisations should be promoted to increase the transparency and trust in the governanace .
• Pendency of cases should be lowered and there should be a time based disposal of cases.
• The digitization of the RTI Portal can be a great way to overcome the loopholes in this noble cause and to realize the main objective of the act in its letter and spirit.

Syllabus : GS 2 – Governance