THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT

Dr. Shiyas Mohammed

Junior Resident
Department of Chest & TB
Govt. Medical College, Patiala.

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RTI- Introduction
Ministry of Law and Justice, legislative
department published the RTI Act 2005,
in the Gazette of India on 15th June 2005
It extends to the whole of India except the
state of J&K

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RTI
Citizen’sright to obtain information from
any public authority relating to its
administration, operations or decisions
A fundamental democratic right

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RTI
 An Act to provide right to information for citizens
◦ to secure access to information under the control of
public authorities
◦ in order to promote transparency and accountability
in the working of
 every public authority,
 the constitution of a Central Information
Commission
 and State Information Commissions
for matters connected therewith or incidental
thereto.

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Definitions under the act
“Right to information" means the right to
information accessible under this Act
which is held by or under the control of
any public authority and includes the right
to—
◦  request any information (as defined).
◦  obtain copies of documents.
◦  inspect documents, works and records.
◦  take certified samples of materials of work.

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Information (section 2f) means
◦ any material in any form including records,
documents, memos, emails, opinions, advises,
press releases, circulars, orders, log books,
contracts, reports, papers, data material held in
any electronic form and information relating
to any private body which can be accessed by
a public authority

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Records (section 2i) means
◦ Any documents, manuscripts and file
◦ Any copy of a document
◦ Any other materials produced by the computer
or any other devices
Appropriate government means
◦ in relation to a public authority which is
established, constituted, owned, controlled or
substantially financed by central or state
government
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Public authority means
◦ any authority or body or institution of self-
government established or constituted—
(a) by or under the Constitution;
(b) by any other law made by Parliament;
(c) by any other law made by State Legislature;
(d) by notification issued or order made by the
appropriate Government, and includes any—
 (i) body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
 (ii) non-Government organization substantially financed,
directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate
Government;

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 Right to information and obligations of public authorities

Subject to the provisions of this Act, all citizens shall have the
right to information.
Every public authority shall—
(a) maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a
manner and the form which facilitates the right to information
under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate
to be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject
to availability of resources, computerised and connected
through a network all over the country on different systems so
that access to such records is facilitated; 9
Right to information and obligations of public authorities

(b) publish within one hundred and twenty days from the
enactment of this Act,—
i. the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties;
ii. the powers and duties of its officers and employees;
iii. the procedure followed in the decision making
process, including channels of supervision and
accountability;
iv. the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions
v. the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and
records, held by it or under its control or used by its
employees for discharging its functions;
vi. a statement of the categories of documents that are
held by it or under its control;
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Right to information and obligations of public authorities

vii. the particulars of any arrangement that exists for

consultation with, or representation by, the members of
the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or
implementation thereof;
viii. a statement of the boards, councils, committees and
other bodies consisting of two or more persons
constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice,
and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils,
committees and other bodies are open to the public, or
the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public;

ix. a directory of its officers and employees;

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 Right to information and obligations of public authorities

x. the monthly remuneration received by each of

its officers and employees, including the system
of compensation as provided in its regulations;
xi. the budget allocated to each of its agency,
indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed
expenditures and reports on disbursements
made;
xii. the manner of execution of subsidy
programmes, including the amounts allocated

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PROCESS
Under the Act, all authorities covered must appoint their
Public Information Officer (PIO). Every public
authority is required to designate Assistant Public
Information Officers to receive RTI requests and appeals
for forwarding to the PIOs of their public authority.
 A person who desires to obtain any information under
this act shall make a request to the PIO concerned for
information in writing or through electronic means with
accompanying prescribed fee
For Central Departments as of 2006, there is a fee of Rs.
10 for filing the request, Rs. 2 per page of information
and Rs. 5 for each hour of inspection after the first hour.

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PROCESS

 If the applicant is a Below Poverty Card holder, then

no fee shall apply.
The applicant is not required to disclose any
information or reasons other than his name and contact
particulars to seek the information.
It is the PIO's obligation to provide information to
citizens of India who request information under the
Act.
 If the request pertains to another public authority it is
the PIO's responsibility to transfer/forward the
concerned portions of the request to a PIO of the other
within 5 days.
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Where a decision is taken to provide the information
on payment of any further fee representing the cost
of providing the information, the Central Public
Information Officer or State Public Information
Officer, as the case may be, shall send an intimation
to the person making the request,
Where access to the record or a part thereof is
required to be provided under this Act and the person
to whom access is to be provided is sensorily
disabled, the Central Public Information Officer or
State Public Information Officer, as the case may be,
shall provide assistance to enable access to the
information.

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Since the information is to be paid for, the
reply of the PIO is necessarily limited to
either denying the request (in whole or
part) and/or providing a computation of
"further fees". The time between the reply
of the PIO and the time taken to deposit
the further fees for information is
excluded from the time allowed.

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TIME LIMITS
The Act specifies time limits for replying to the
request.
If the request has been made to the PIO, the
reply is to be given within 30 days of receipt.
If the request has been made to an APIO, the
reply is to be given within 35 days of receipt.
If the PIO transfers the request to another public
authority , the time allowed to reply is 30 days
but computed from the day after it is received
by the PIO of the transferee authority.

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TIME LIMITS
Information concerning corruption and
Human Rights violations by scheduled
Security agencies is to be provided within
45 days but with the prior approval of
the Central Information Commission.
However, if life or liberty of any person is
involved, the PIO is expected to reply
within 48 hours.

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 Exemptions from disclosure

[Section.8]


Information,
 disclosure of which would prejudicially affect

the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security,

"strategic, scientific or economic" interests of the State,

relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an

offense;

Information
 which has been expressly forbidden to be

published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of

which may constitute contempt of court;

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 Exemptions from disclosure

Information,
 the disclosure of which would cause a

breach of privilege of Parliament or the State

Legislature;

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; 20
 Exemptions from disclosure
 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;
 Information received in confidence from foreign
Government;
 Information, the disclosure of which would endanger the
life or physical safety of any person or identify the
source of information or assistance given in confidence
for law enforcement or security purposes;
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 Information which would impede the process of investigation
or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;
 Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the
Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers;
 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 (but it is also provided that the
information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a
State Legislature shall not be denied by this exemption);

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NONDICLOSURE OF
INFORMATION- patient related
under RTI act
The following patient related information
cannot be shared with a third party
seeking information through RTI
application because of fiduciary
relationship between the treating doctor
and the patient as per the provisions
provided under RTI act 2005.

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Patient related information regarding
◦ Treatment records
◦ Investigation records
◦ Medicolegal reports
◦ Case sheet
◦ Discharge summary
◦ Death summary
◦ Postmortem report
◦ Any other patient related information

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Where a request has been rejected under sub-section

(1), the Central Public Information Officer or State

Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall

communicate to the person making the request,—

(i) the reasons for such rejection;

(ii) the period within which an appeal against such

rejection may be preferred; and

(iii) the particulars of the appellate authority.

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If information is not provided within this
period, it is treated as deemed refusal.
Refusal with or without reasons may be
ground for appeal or complaint. Further,
information not provided in the times
prescribed is to be provided free of charge.

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PENALTY
If the Public Information Officer

◦ without any reasonable cause, refused to receive an

application for information or

◦ has not furnished information within the time specified under

sub-section (1) of section 7 or

◦ malafidely denied the request for information or

◦ knowingly given incorrect, incomplete or misleading

information or

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◦ destroyed information which was the subject of the

request or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the

information

◦ it shall impose a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees

each day till application is received or information is

furnished, so however, the total amount of such penalty

shall not exceed twenty-five thousand rupees:

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ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
Section 26 of the Act enjoins the central government, as also the

state governments of the Union of India (excluding J&K), to initiate

necessary steps to:

Develop educational programs for the public especially

disadvantaged communities on RTI.

Encourage Public Authorities to participate in the development and

organization of such programs.

Promote timely dissemination of accurate information to the public.

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Train officers and develop training materials.

Compile and disseminate a User Guide for the public

in the respective official language.

Publish names, designation postal addresses and

contact details of PIOs and other information such as

notices regarding fees to be paid, remedies available in

law if request is rejected etc.

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Thank you..
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