WHAT IS RIGHT TO INFORMATION?

1.Introduction

The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, any citizen of India may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. In case of matter involving a petitioner's life and liberty, the information has to be provided within 48 hours. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally. (1)

The RTI Bill was passed by Parliament of India on 15 June 2005 and came into force with effect from 12 October 2005. Every day on an average, over 4800 RTI applications are filed. In the first ten years of the commencement of the act, over 17,500,000 applications had been filed.

Although Right to Information is not included as a Fundamental Right in the Constitution of India, 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. The authorities under RTI Act 2005 are called public authorities. The Public Information Officer (PIO) or the First Appellate Authority in the public authorities perform quasi judicial function of deciding on the application and appeal respectively. This act was enacted in order to consolidate the fundamental right in the Indian constitution 'freedom of speech'. Since RTI is implicit in the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, it is an implied fundamental right.

2. Scope

The Act extends to the whole of India. [a][7] It covers all the constitutional authorities, including executive, legislature and judiciary; any institution or body established or constituted by an act of Parliament or a state legislature. It is also defined in the Act that bodies or authorities established or constituted by order or notification of appropriate government including bodies "owned, controlled or substantially financed" by government, or non-Government organizations "substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds".

3. Private bodies

Private bodies are not within the act's purview. In a decision of Sarbjit Roy vs Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission,[8] the Central Information Commission also reaffirmed that privatised public utility companies fall within the purview of RTI.[9] As of 2014, private institutions and NGOs receiving over 95% of their infrastructure funds from the government come under the Act.

4. Amendment

The Right to Information Act 2019 passed on July 25, 2019[14] modified the terms and conditions of service of the CIC and Information Commissioners at the centre and in states. It had been criticized as watering down the independence of the information commissions, namely by empowering the government to fix the term of service and salaries of information commissioners.

5. Supreme Court judgement

Supreme Court of India on 13 November 2019, upheld the decision of the Delhi High Court bringing the office of Chief Justice of India under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

6. Its importance

The RTI Act, 2005 did not create a new bureaucracy for implementing the law. Instead, it tasked and mandated officials in every office to change their attitude and duty from one of secrecy to one of sharing and openness.(2)

1. It carefully and deliberately empowered the Information Commission to be the highest authority in the country with the mandate to order any office in the country to provide information as per the provisions of the Act. And it empowered the Commission to fine any official who did not follow the mandate.

2. Right to information has been seen as the key to strengthening participatory democracy and ushering in people centred governance.

3. Access to information can empower the poor and the weaker sections of society to demand and get information about public policies and actions, thereby leading to their welfare. It showed an early promise by exposing wrongdoings at high places, such as in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games, and the allocation of 2G spectrum and coal blocks.

4. Right to information opens up governments records to public scrutiny, thereby arming citizens with a vital tool to inform them about what the government does and how effectively, thus making the government more accountable.

5. Improves decision making by public authority by removing unnecessary secrecy.

7. Challenges

1. Different types of information is sought which has no public interest and sometimes can be used to misuse the law and harass the public authorities. For example-

Asking for desperate and voluminous information.

To attain publicity by filing RTI

RTI filed as vindictive tool to harass or pressurize the public authority

2. Because of the illiteracy and unawareness among the majority of population in the country, the RTI cannot be exercised.

3. Though RTIs aim is not to create a grievance redressal mechanism, the notices from Information Commissions often spur the public authorities to redress grievances.

8. Recent Amendments

1. The RTI amendment Bill 2013 removes political parties from the ambit of the definition of public authorities and hence from the purview of the RTI Act.

2. The draft provision 2017 which provides for closure of case in case of death of applicant can lead to more attacks on the lives of whistleblowers.

3. The proposed RTI Amendment Act 2018 is aimed at giving the Centre the power to fix the tenures and salaries of state and central information commissioners, which are statutorily protected under the RTI Act. The move will dilute the autonomy and independence of CIC.

4. The Act proposes to replace the fixed 5 year tenure to as much prescribed by government.

9. Other issues

1. Information commissioners do not have adequate authorities to enforce the RTI Act.

2. In case of award of compensation to activist by public authority as ordered by commision, compliance cannot be secured.

3. Poor record-keeping practices

4. Lack of adequate infrastructure and staff for running information commissions

5. Dilution of supplementary laws like the whistleblowers protection Act.

10. Conclusion

The Right to Information Act was made to achieve social justice, transparency and to make accountable government but this act has not achieved its full objectives due to some impediments created due to systematic failures.As observed by Delhi High Court that misuse of the RTI Act has to be appropriately dealt with; otherwise the public would lose faith and confidence in this "sunshine Act".It is well recognized that right to information is necessary, but not sufficient, to improve governance. A lot more needs to be done to usher in accountability in governance, including protection of whistleblowers, decentralization of power and fusion of authority with accountability at all levels.This law provides us a priceless opportunity to redesign the processes of governance, particularly at the grass roots level where the citizens interface is maximum.

11. Citation

1. What is right to information available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org (last visited on Dec 11, 2023)

2. What is right to information available at: https://www.drishtiias.com (last visited on Dec 11, 2023)