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#Right to Information (RTI) Act Relevance: GS2+4
Dated: 26/10/2023
ð Intro:
Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed by Parliament in 2005 to enable the citizens to exercise their freedom
of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of Indian Constitution
The RTI Act provides for timely disclosure of information to citizens by Union and State Public
Authorities. It seeks to empower citizens and promote accountability and transparency

ð Provisions of the act:

• Under the Act, Public Authorities are required to make disclosures on various aspects of their structure
and functioning. This includes:
(a) Disclosure on their organization;
(b) Functions and structure;
(c) Powers and duties of its officers and
employees;
(d) Financial information;
(e) Procedure followed in the decision-
making process, including channels of
supervision and accountability etc.
among others.
• Section 4 of the Act calls for proactive disclosure of information by all authorities so that the public have
minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information.
• Section 8 of the Act provides exceptions to the disclosure of information, basis which sharing of
information can be denied.
• Under the Act, the public authorities have to designate some of its officers as Public Information
Officer (PIO). They are responsible to give information to a person who seeks information under the RTI
Act.
• The Act has established the Central Information Commission at the level of Central Government
and State Information Commission in each State.
• Under the Act, information is very broadly defined. A citizen can request a range of different types of
information in a range of different formats including:
(a) Obtaining certified copies of documents or records;
(b) Inspecting records;
(c) Inspecting public works and taking samples of material from public works etc.
• The Act requires that PIOs shall provide information within 30 days but applications requesting
information regarding a citizen’s life and liberty must be granted or refused within 48 hours.
• An appeal can be made to a departmental Appellate Authority, who is an officer senior in rank to the PIO
but in the same public authority.
o The Appellate authority has to hear both the parties before giving a decision on the correctness of
the order passed by the PIO.
o A second appeal can also be made to the Information Commission if the decision of the Appellate
Authority is not satisfactory.
• Exemptions to RTI: Section 8(1) lists all of the exemptions:
(a) information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the security, sovereignty and integrity of India;
(b) information which may constitute contempt of court;
(c) information that would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;
(d) information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which
would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that
larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;
(e) information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied
that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;
(f) information received in confidence from foreign government;
(g) information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person;
(h) information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;
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(i) cabinet papers including records of deliberations, which come under the specified exemptions;
(j) information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has not relationship to any
public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy.
o Section 8(2) Notwithstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923) nor any of the
exemptions permissible in accordance with sub-section (1), a public authority may allow access to
information, if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests
o Some provisions of Indian Evidence Act (Sections 123, 124, and 162) provide to hold the
disclosure of documents.
o The Atomic Energy Act, 1912 provides that it shall be an offence to disclose information restricted
by the Central Government
o The Central Civil Services Act provides a government servant not to communicate or part with
any official documents except in accordance with a general or special order of government.

ð Impact of RTI
• Anti-corruption tool: In the past 17 years, it has been instrumental in uncovering a list of major scams.
Scams like
o Adarsh Society Scam, 2G scam, Commonwealth Games Scam, Indian Red Cross Society Scam are
some noticeable achievements under RTI.
o The success of the Act earned it the 4th place among 111 countries in the annual rating of similar
empowering laws across the world in the year 2016.
• Empowered people’s voice: The RTI Act has empowered people in containing corruption and bringing
transparency and accountability in the working of the Government.
• Strengthened Democracy through active participation of the public.
• Every year, around six million applications are filed under the RTI Act, making it the most extensively
used sunshine legislation globally.
• The access to information about policies, decisions and actions of the government that affect the lives of
citizens is an instrument to ensure accountability.
• The Supreme Court has, in several judgments, held that the RTI is a fundamental right flowing from
Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee to citizens the freedom of speech and expression
and the right to life, respective.

ð Importance of Transparency and RTI in good governance

• Features leading to transparency:
o A large amount of information has to be placed in the public domain by ways of manuals prescribed
under the Act.
o All the Government departments along with a number of bodies which receive substantial funding
from the Government have been brought under the RTI.
• Features leading to accountability:
o RTI Act provide for setting up of Central Information Commission and State Information
Commission.
o These Commissions act as the Second Appellate Authority and also exercise supervision and
monitoring over the functioning of Public Information Officers.
o Public authorities have to provide information as early as possible as but not later than 30 days
o In case of delay, the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission can
impose a penalty

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ð Challenges in implementation of RTI

• According to the Commonwealth Human
Rights Initiative (CHRI), across India, 99 RTI
activists have lost their lives, 180 assaulted and
187 were threatened since 2006
• As on June 30, 2021, 2.56 lakh appeals were
pending with 26 Information Commissions in
the country. It takes 6 years and 8 months to
dispose of a matter in Odisha, as per the going
rate, according to the Satark Nagrik
Sangathan (SNS) 2021 report
• Increased rate of dismissal of application by
using words like national security => need to
bring more objective approach to tackle this
• The quality of information received has come
down => leading to poor satisfaction of the citizens.
o Ex: RTI filed to know how many people lost their lives due to lack of oxygen, about the number
of migrant workers => reply was government doesn’t maintain any such data
• Value conflict of RTI with Data Protection act => personal information exempted
Explore this theme here: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-bill-that-fences-in-the-right-to-
information/article67091239.ece

ð Recent Amendments
The RTI Act (Amendment) Act, 2019 gives the central government the power to fix the terms and the service
conditions of the Information Commissioners both at central and state levels. By vesting excessive powers
with the central government, this amendment has hampered the autonomy of CIC.

Arguments by Government for these Reforms

• Arguments v/s Statutory Bodies: A statutory body (CIC and ICs) can’t be compared with a
constitutional Body viz. CEC and ECs.
• Rationalisation of Status and Services Conditions: Earlier, CIC was given the status of Supreme Court
Judge but his judgements can be challenged in High Courts. Such dichotomy is now removed.
• No Rule-making power to Government previously: Now the new amendment gives better control to
the government over the statutory body.

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ð Critical evaluation of RTI Amendments:

• RTI Act makes one exemption: it prohibits personal data disclosure of citizens by the government, unless
there is an overriding public interest in doing so. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023,
amended this qualified prohibition into a total prohibition.
o The National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI) sounded the alarm on this
provision earlier this year, arguing that it would make ‘social audits’ in rations distribution impossible
to carry out
• Union Government unilateral power in deciding how long information commissioners, who hear appeals
against unsatisfactory or absent RTI responses, can serve, and what their salaries are.
o Tardy appointments to information commissions — the Central Information Commission (CIC) for
the Union Government, and various State Information Commissions (SICs) — have also undermined
confidence in the RTI framework
• Central government will also control through rules, the terms and conditions of appointment of
Commissioners in the States. This is an assault on the idea of federalism.

ð Critical evaluation of CIC

• CIC is a statutory body constituted under section 12 of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
• Similar to CIC, SIC is also a statutory body constituted under section 15 of the Right to Information Act,
2005.
#The main objectives of CIC and SIC are:
• To exercise the powers conferred on them under the RTI Act, 2005.
• To receive and inquire into complaints from any citizen (Section 18 of the RTI Act, 2005).
• To receive and decide upon the second appeal from any citizen (Section 19 of the RTI Act, 2005).
• To perform the duty of " Monitoring and Reporting " (Section 25 of the RTI Act, 2005).

ð Some of the challenges associated with CIC and SIC are

• Lack of transparency: The criteria of selection and way of working of CIC and SIC are not adequately
transparent.
o Example: Recently, the Supreme Court has commented on the phenomenon of primarily former
bureaucrats being appointed as commissioners, observing that ‘only one category of persons are
always found to be more competent and more suitable than persons belonging to other categories’.
• Poor Record Management Practices: Ineffective record management systems and procedures to collect
information from field offices lead to delays in processing RTI applications.
• Non-filling vacancies: Vacancies in CIC are not filled in a timely manner leading to a backlog of cases.
• Lack of capacity building: A person appointed to the post of CPIO in a public authority often lacks the
required knowledge of the act to deal with the RTI application. This creates a delay in processing the
delivery of the answer to the application.
• Delay in disposal of appeals and complaints: the act doesn’t provide any limit within which the Second
Appeal to CIC must be heard and disposed of.
o Example: As on June 30, 2021, 2.56 lakh appeals were pending with 26 information commissions
in the country.
• Poor quality of the information provided: CPIOs provide poor quality information to the applicant and
complainant which the information seeker is not satisfied.
• Low Public Awareness: People are not much aware of RTI, especially in the lower strata of society.

ð Issues of Frivolous complaints

Frivolous RTIs: An oft-repeated excuse by bureaucrats for their unprofessional attitude is the number of
frivolous queries or those with perverse motives. The reality, however, is that such queries constitute only
around 4% of the total appeals and can easily be managed.

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ð Tackling frivolous complaints:

• Glorification by the media of such so called activist further encourages filing of such frivolous
applications under Right to Information Act. Both print and visual Media should restrain from giving
space to such frivolous applications.
• Set up screening cells: segregate and identify frivolous complaints at the first point of filing only.
o If found frivolous, warning should be issued to such person
• The government Authorities should not be forced to prioritize the work of providing the information at
the cost of their regular work
• Citizens must realize that Request for the disclosure of the information indiscriminately can at times lead
to the situation where the bureaucracy’s time and efficiency is being bogged down under the non-
productive work involved in furnishing of information
• Penalty for frivolous complaints
o A fine of Rs50,000 was imposed by CIC for seeking sales tax information for personal revenge.
Read more: https://thewire.in/government/short-staffed-information-commission-suggests-new-ways-to-deal-
with-frivolous-queries

ð Way forward for RTI act

• The report of the second Administrative Reforms Commission titled, “Right to Information: Master
Key to Good Governance” recommends that the Official Secrets Act, 1923, should be repealed, as it
is incongruous with the regime of transparency in a democratic society. This recommendation should be
adhered to.
• Ensure submission of annual reports: Information commissions must ensure that, as legally required, they
submit their annual report to the Parliament/state assemblies in a reasonable time
• Balancing with Privacy Right: This right is enshrined within the spirit of Article 21 of the Constitution.
The right to information must be balanced with the right to privacy within the framework of law.
• The Public Information Commissioners must be given adequate training to be cooperative enough
towards the Information seekers. External agency must be appointed to train the officers within and
beyond the Act.
• The Act is being implemented with the existing bureaucracy with no fresh recruitment to fill the post of
the Public information Officers. May be our legislators were not aware of the mammoth task which this
novel Act will bring into. Overloading the existing workforce with the additional responsibility will surely
subdue the noble objectives with which this Act came into being. The Central and State government
should be vested with adequate funds in order to steer the machinery to be involved for the proper
implementation of this Act.

ð SC judgements on RTI
1. In CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AND ANR. V. ADITYA
BANDOPADHYAY AND ORS, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has held that access to evaluated copies
can be allowed only to the extent of answer-book which does not contain any information or signature
or initials of the examiners/coordinators/ scrutinizers/head examiners disclosing their identity.
2. In BIHAR PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION V. SAIYED HUSSAIN ABBAS RIZWI, marks
obtained by a person can be disclosed but the disclosure of individual names and marks they awarded
would be hardly hold relevancy either to the concept of transparency or for proper exercise of the right
to information within the limitation of the Act
3. Supreme Court’s guidelines in DDA vs Skipper Construction (P) Ltd should be followed in letter and
spirit. It said;
• High Courts must resist the temptation to exercise their writ jurisdiction in order to correct errors
made by the SICs/CICs;
• If the High Court quashes a CIC/SIC order, it must categorically find that the order was without
jurisdiction or palpably erroneous.

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ð Conclusion:
The RTI has unshackled millions of users who will continue to use this democratic right creatively and to dismantle
exclusive power. The RTI has been and will be used to withstand attacks on itself and strengthen the movement
for transparency and accountability in India

Mains PYQs(GS-02):
Some recent developments such as introduction of RTI Act, media and judicial activism, etc., 10 marks
are proving helpful in bringing about greater transparency and accountability in the functioning
of the government. However, it is also being observed that at times the mechanisms are
2015
misused. Another negative effect is that the officers are now afraid to take prompt decisions.
Analyse this situation in detail and suggest how this dichotomy can be resolved. Suggest how
these negative impacts can be minimized.
“The Right to Information Act is not all about citizens’ empowerment alone, it essentially 10 marks
2018
redefines the concept of accountability. Discuss.
There is a view that the official secrets act is an obstacle to the implementation of the Rights to 10 marks
2019
Information act. Do you agree with the view? Discuss
“Recent amendments to the Right to Information Act will have profound impact on the 10 marks
2020
autonomy and independence of the Information Commission”. Discuss.

References:
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/explained-has-right-to-information-weakened-over-the-
years/article67259315.ece
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-the-rti-act-fulfilling-its-purpose/article66266153.ece
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-bill-that-fences-in-the-right-to-information/article67091239.ece
https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT1801088.pdf

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