The Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed by Parliament in 2005, aiming to give people access to the records of the Central and State governments. It was a vital reform to help activists and individuals ensure transparency and accountability in governance.
The RTI Act 2005:
- The Act imposes an obligation on public agencies to disclose the information suo-moto to reduce requests for information. It provides for the establishment of a Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions. They will be independent high-level bodies to act as appellate authorities and vested with the powers of a civil court. It provides for the appointment of an information officer in each department to provide information to the public on request.
- It fixes a 30-day deadline for providing information, the deadline is 48 hours if information concerns the life or liberty of a person. Information will be free for people below the poverty line. For others, the fee will be reasonable.
- Section 8 of RTI Act exempts certain information: security or sovereignty, national economic interest, relations with foreign states, law enforcement and judicial process, cabinet and other decision making documents, trade secrets and commercial confidentiality.
Issues in the Implementation:
- Misuse Many times RTI has been filed to harass or pressurize the public authority.
- Under Section 26 of the RTI Act, the appropriate Government is expected to publish and distribute user guides for information seekers. However, nodal departments have not published these guides in many states.
- Threats to RTI activists: Commonwealth Human Initiative observed that around 90 RTI activists have been killed since 2005.
- Exemptions: Some institutions like judiciary, political parties are not being covered under the Act.
- Record keeping: The records and documents in the government are not properly indexed and catalogued, even digital file maintenance have not been adopted in letter and spirit. The staff is not trained adequately to reply for RTI queries.
- Attitude of secrecy: Colonial attitude of bureaucracy to withhold the information is acting as a barrier.
The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019:
- It states that the central government will notify the term of office for the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and the Information Commissioner (ICs). The salaries, allowances, and other terms and conditions of service of the central and state CIC and ICs will be determined by the central government.
Criticism of the Amended Act:
- Reducing the status of the CIC, IC and State CIC from that of a Supreme Court judge would impact their ability to issue directives to senior government functionaries.
- The role of State Governments with respect to state information commissioners has been diminished. Opposition now has no role in the appointment process.
- A threat to transparency and accountability of CIC and ICs: Earlier the CIC and ICs could function relatively independently due to fixed tenure and salary. Now the new provisions make CIC and ICs subject to the mercy of the central government.
Reforms Suggested:
- Constitutional Status should be given to CIC and ICs to enable their autonomous functioning. The concern regarding sensitive data needs to be well defined to avoid any vague dismissal of RTI application by Public Information Officers.
- Implementation of best practices like Pune Municipal Corporation which has designated one day in a week when all files are put up for public inspection.
- Proactive disclosure of basic information by the government.
- Take steps to reduce pendency of cases by capacity building of the authorities and supporting related infrastructure. Nearly 2.2 lakh cases are pending at the central and state level.