DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

Civil Society and Public Grievances

FINAL DRAFT

RTI Act in India: An Overview

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. RK Yadav Faizan Ahmad

Asst. Professor Enrollment- 170101057

RMLNLU Sem- 8th, Section -A

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Acknowledgement

I want to express uncommon much obliged and appreciation to my educator Dr. R.K Yadav,
who gave me the brilliant chance to finalize this glorious research on RTI Act in India: An
Overview, which has helped me pick up a mess of viewpoint about the development of
present day situation. All through the exploration period, I have been guided by my educator
at whatever point I confronted any obstacles or was in a state of daze not having the capacity
to resolve the intricacies of the subject.

I want to thank my University, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University,
Lucknow, for giving me the opportunity to be a part of a novel exploration turned educational
program which without a doubt helps the comprehension of the subject.

I likewise want to thank my guardians, guides and well-wishers who have been a consistent
underpin and have sufficient energy and again looked into my work and have give their
experiences on the matter.

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CONTENTS

• Introduction.................................................................................................4
• Right to Information and the need for it.....................................................4
• Salient Features of the RTI Act...................................................................7
• Initiatives on the part of the Central and State Governments ...............8
• Issues and Suggestions for Effective Implementation of RTI Act.........9
• Conclusion.............................................................................................11
• Bibliography.........................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION

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 The administration of India in last one and half decades has gone through a number of
changes because of liberalization, privatization and globalization. On the one hand, the role
of market has increased and it entered the field which was earlier completely controlled by
the state. On the other hand, the role of the state has somewhat reduced, but not entirely out
of the race in providing services of vital importance like health, education, etc. Although
some important principles of private sector in the form of efficiency, economy and
effectiveness have been applied in the working of government organisation, still the
common people think that government administration is working under some kind of
secrecy, without sharing the necessary information with them. Thus, it leads to lack of
responsive and transparent administration. In this context, the role of right to information
(RTI) legislation is an important piece of law in an independent India.

Right to Information and the Need for It

Right to information basically means the citizen’s right to get information from
government and its various instruments at all levels which are substantially financed
directly or indirectly by the government, known as public authority as a matter of right
within a stipulated time frame barring exceptions1. The United Nations General Assembly
in 1946 stressed in clear terminology ‘Freedom of Information is a fundamental human
right and the touchstone for all freedoms to which the UN is consecrated’2. Also, the United
Nations Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 in Article 19 states ‘Everyone has the right to
freedom of opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’. The Freedom of Information was
firstly given by Sweden to its people in 1766 and it took more than one and half centuries
for another country to enact it and it was done by the Finland in 1951.

The other major countries who enacted the law are USA (1966), Australia (1982),
South Africa (2000), and UK (2000). The various provisions of the law are somewhat
different in different countries, depending upon the social, cultural, economic and political
1
Kumar P, Rai KB (2006) Right to know—a hands on guide to the Right to Information Act. Vikas

Publishing House Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, p 10, pp. 175, 176, 180, 197
2
Goel SL (2007) Right to information and good governance. Deep and Deep, New Delhi, p 35

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 situation in the given country. In India, the need for right to information has been felt by the
people since the independence because of the existence of Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1923,
which was enacted by the British during the colonial era. The law largely deals with matters
of security and provides a framework for dealing with espionage, sedition and other assaults
on the unity and integrity of the nation. However, given the colonial climate of mistrust of
people and the primacy of public officials in dealing with the citizens, OSA created a
culture of secrecy, confidentiality became the norm and disclosure the exception. Also, the
Civil Service Conduct Rules of 1964 prohibit communication of an official document to
anyone without authorization. Even the UK which made the OSA in India during colonial
period has taken an initiative in the form of appointing a committee known as Franks
Committee in 1971 to look into some aspects of their OSA3. The committee observed that
“a government which pursues secret aims or which operates in greater secrecy then the
effective conduct of its proper functions requires, or which turns information services into
propaganda agencies will lose the trust of the people. It will be countered by ‘ill informed
and destructive criticism’”.

Thus, there increased a growing public demand in India, and the first initiative has been
taken by the Janata government under the Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who set up a
working group to look after the issue of modifications of OSA, 1923. But
unfortunately, the working group recommended that there is no need to alter the 1923 Act.
Thereafter, several political parties in their various general election manifestos and also the
government at the centre highlighted the need for establishing the Right to Information Act
in the country but with no success. Only the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
government in the year 2000 introduced the Freedom of Information Bill in the Parliament,
which passed by the Lok Sabha on 2002, but it could not be enforced.

However, the central government in the year 1986 made a Consumer Protection Act, which
is essentially an important act. It enables the consumers the right to be informed about the
quality, quantity, potency, purity standard and prices of goods. But the people started
demanding in great vigour that if Consumer Protection Act can be passed by the
government then why not the RTI, which will empower the poor and the weaker sections of
society to demand and get information about public policies and actions thereby leading to

3
Agarwal UC (2010) Governance and administration—an insider’s view. Kanishka, New Delhi, p 288

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their welfare. It will help in promoting participative democracy, through citizen’s
participation in the governance process. James Madison once rightly said, ‘A people who
mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with power that knowledge gives’
(Ibid, preface page). Also, the Supreme Court of India stated in a 1981 ruling that the ‘right
to freedom of speech and expression’ includes the ‘right to receive and impart education’.
The apex court has made it clear that the right to information is implicit in the right to free
speech and expression. It is an inalienable component of freedom of speech and expression
guaranteed by the Article 19 of the constitution. There are quite few NGOs which put
pressure on the government to make a law on RTI, but one NGO, which leads the way was
the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghathan based in Rajasthan, since 1994 waged a relentless
struggle on the right of citizens to demand information saying ‘the right to know is the right
to live’ [6]. The movement has resulted into the formation of National Campaign for
People’s Right to Information, which campaigns for the people’s right to information. And
finally, in the year 2005, the United Progressive Alliance I (UPA I) government enacted the
RTI.

Salient Features of RTI Act 2005

Some important features of the act are given below

1. The act gives every citizen to seek information from any public authority, whether
owned, controlled or substantially financed by the government.

2. Information means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-

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mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports,
papers, samples, models and data material held in any electronic form.

3. A citizen who wants the information just needs to make a request in writing in a
plain paper or through electronic means in English or Hindi in the official
language of the area in which the application is being made. The citizen can
get assistance from the central/state public information officers in writing down
the application for request and filing of application.

4. The public authority needs to provide information as asked by the citizen, within
30 days of the receipt of the request. And if the information concerns with the life
or liberty of a person, then within 48 h, the information needs to be provided.

5. The act also provides for exemption of certain types of information from dis-
closures, especially related to security and integrity of the country.

6. The citizen enjoys the redressal mechanism in the form of appeal and complaints if he
does not receive the information within the stipulated time period or is
aggrieved by a decision of the central or state public information officer.

7. The penalty of 250 rupees per day will be imposed upon the officers who failed
to comply with the act. However, the total amount of penalty will be subject to a
maximum of 25,000 rupees only.

Surprisingly, the RTI Act 2005 of India was more transparent than the Information
Acts of other countries such as Australia, UK, USA, South Africa, etc. For instance,
in Australia, policy-related information access is weak; Britain has too many exemp-
tions; and USA law on Freedom of Information Act has problems related to delays
and unclear state laws which prevent the citizens’ ability to examine even the most
fundamental actions of government. In South Africa, the law on the promotion of
Access to Information Act 2000 did not include in its jurisdiction legislature and
judiciary, same is the case with Canada.

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 Initiatives on the Part of Central and State Governments

The Government of India has taken the number of initiatives to popularize the RTI
Act. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is the nodal agency for
implementing the RTI Act 2005 under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances
and Pensions, Government of India. It took a number of initiatives and few importantof
them are: First is the 15-day online certificate course on RTI for various stakeholders in
association with the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad4. The online certificate course
is aimed at:

1) Public information officers

2) Assistant public information officers

3) Appellate authorities

4) Officials assisting the above-designated officers or other public officials

5) Citizens

6) Representatives of civil society organisations (including media organisations)

7) Any other person(s) who could be a direct/indirect stakeholder.

4
RTI Online Certificate—Right to Information Act, online certificate course (2011). Source from

rtiocc.cgg.gov.in/login.do;jsessionid0950c268580co2944DB485532F2F3FC5. Accessed 11 Oct 2011

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Issues and Suggestions for Effective Implementation of RTI Act

The RTI Act 2005 has now completed 6 years of its existence in the country, and it is
the right time to analyse it, as still there exists some important issues which need to be
solved. The following are the given issues and suggestions related to the RTI Act.

1. The application request for information is increasing every year, which created
the heavy burden on the administration and is already facing the shortage of
necessary infrastructure and manpower. Even, the Supreme Court recently ob-
served in one of the cases that 75 % of the staff was engaged in the disposal of
RTI application, which affects other activities of government organisation. It also
resulted in delay, misinformation, inadequate information, etc. provided to the
information seeker. Here, the solution lies in two ways: either firstly creating the
necessary infrastructure and providing sufficient manpower or secondly the
public authorities suo motu publish all the necessary basic information on their
websites and update it regularly, so that people do not need to use RTI for every
small basic information.

2. Still, the Central Information Commission and many State Information Commissions do
not have their own regular office building. Also, there was no financial autonomy to the CIC
or SICs and they depend upon the government for day to day expenditure [20]. This problem
can be solved by granting constitutional status to the Information Commission, like Election
Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General are enjoying, because Information
Commissions are also playing an important role in the society by bringing transparency and
accountability in governance system.

3. There exists lack of awareness especially among the rural people about their rights under
the RTI Act, which may vary from state to state and also within the state; the reason being
the lack of literacy, and more importantly less publicity radio, television, other mode, etc.
Even in television, it was only shown in Doordarshan, which is a government-owned
channel. This can be solved by making a wide publicity campaign especially among women
and self-help groups in rural areas through newspapers, distribution of pamphlets/booklets
and to educate through radio, nukkad natak and in some extent door to door publicity with

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the help of NGOs.

4. In recent times, many RTI activists have been assaulted and murdered across the country,
for exposing the corruption, misuse of power, etc. by bureaucrats and political leaders, which
is a dangerous sign. From the period October 2009 to October 2011, as many as 13 RTI
activists have been murdered. It can be prevented by providing security to the information
seekers, who seeks information which are critical in nature and have maximum impact on
people against whom the information is sought. The law enforcement agencies in the states
need to closely work with the State Information Commission. Along with this, the people
who are involved in these kinds of activities need to be given rigorous punishment, which
deter other to do the same thing against RTI activists. Some kind of whistle blower law needs
to be made for the RTI activists.

5. One of the major challenges faced by the public authority is the information housekeeping.
Still, every level of administration in the country is not reached by information technology,
and as a result, the data are maintained manually, which create the problem for data
management. Thus, there is the need for quickly adopting and spreading the e-governance
throughout the country, which would result into computerization of records, workflows, etc.
and which will help in effective record management system in the offices.

Conclusion

There cannot be any dispute about the fact that the RTI Act has brought a new
revolution in the governance of the country from a culture of secrecy into a culture of
openness and transparency. It makes an empowered citizenry, where administrations are
made accountable towards them. Although the RTI Act was 6 years old only and still has a
long way to go to see its impact, but nonetheless, during these periods, it became popular
amongst the people which can be seen from the increase of the RTI application every year.
Also, through the use of RTI, many scams in recent times have been unearthed in the country
like 2G spectrum scam which has estimated loss of rupees 1.76 crore; Adarsh Housing
Society scandal, which led to the resignation of former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok
Chavan; and lastly the Commonwealth Games Fraud which also runs into crores. Satyanand

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Mishra, the Chief Information Commissioner, has rightly said that ‘The Right to Information
has whetted the appetite of the people for more such rights. The rights to employment
guarantee, education, public service delivery, food security and a corruption free government
are some of the rights we have given to ourselves or are in the process of giving only because
the ground was prepared by the Right to Information [RTI] Act. It can justify claim to be the
mother of all such rights’. Thus, right to information has brought new lease of life to the
common people,who are starting to use in their day to day activities and intermingle in the
culture of the society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RTI Act,2005

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257796618

http://docs.manupatra.in/newsline/articles/Upload/61DFD921-5C67-4C34-9C6F-
FC946AB34821.pdf

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