“The real Swaraj will come not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of

capacity by all to resist authority when abused”. When Mahatma

Gandhi said this, he may not have imagined that one day India will have to make a law to
empower people for something as basic as seeking information about the
development of the country.

According to Thomas Jefferson “Information is the currency of democracy,” and critical to

the emergence and development of a vibrant civil society. However, with a view to set out a
practical regime for the citizens to secure information as a matter of right, the Indian Parliament
enacted the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Historical Background

•The right to information gained power when Universal Declaration of Human Rights was
adopted in 1948 providing everyone the right to seek, receive, information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers.
•The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966 states that everyone shall have
the right to freedom of expression, the freedom to seek and impart information and ideas of all
kinds.
•Genesis of RTI law started in 1986, through judgement of Supreme Court in Mr. Kulwal v/s
Jaipur Municipal Corporation case, in which it directed that freedom of speech and expression
provided under Article 19 of the Constitution clearly implies Right to Information, as without
information the freedom of speech and expression cannot be fully used by the citizens.

Objectives of the Act

•To empower the citizens
•To promote transparency and accountability
•To Check corruption prevailing in the government to serve the citizens better and
•To enhance people’s participation in democratic process.

Reasons for Adoption of Information Act

The factors responsible for adoption of information act are as follows-

1.Corruption and scandals

2.International pressure and activism
3.Modernization and the information society
Importance of Right to Information Act

1.Right to information has been seen as the key to strengthening participatory democracy and
ushering in people centred governance.
2.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.
3.Right to information opens up government’s 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.
4.Improves decision making by public authority by removing unnecessary secrecy.

Need for Strong RTI

•The ideal of ‘Government by the people’ makes it necessary that people have access to
information on matters of public concern.
•The free flow of information about affairs of Government paves way for debate in public policy
and fosters accountability in Government.
•It creates a condition for ‘open governance’ which is a foundation of democracy.”

Recent Developments

•Centre amended the RTI Act for the first time since 2005.
•The amendments passed by parliament empowered the central government to frame rules to
decide the tenure, salaries and terms of service of all commissioners in the country.
•Repeal of the J&K RTI Act following the reading down of Article 370
•Opening of the Chief Justice of India’s office to RTI

Structure of RTI
RTI is implemented through out India. The purpose of the
implementation of this act is to make the government more transparent, accountable,
corruption-free and it helps to make democracy true and participatory.
According to the Second Administrative Reform Commission 2005 (ARC)
The Right to Information Act, which has recently been enacted, is path-breaking
legislation, which signals the march from the darkness of secrecy to the dawn of
transparency. The Right to Information Act will be a powerful means for fighting
corruption. It will increase the flow of official information to members of the public, and in that
sense, supplement the process of effective overseeing of governmental processes by civil
society.
The RTI Act has divided into VI chapters. The very first chapter is called Preliminary in
which all the related concepts have been defined. According to Section 2 (a) “‘appropriate
Government’ means in relation to a public authority which is established, constituted, owned,
controlled or substantially financed by funds provided directly or indirectly—by the Central
Government or the Union territory administration, the Central Government and by the State
Government, the State Government”.

Central Information Commission

It is constituted under RTI Act, 2005 at Central level. Section 2(b) defined CIC but
chapter III explains about its structure. According to section 12(2) In the Central Information
Commission (CIC), there is a “Chief Information Commissioner and the maximum number of the
Chief Information Commissioner will be ten as may be deemed necessary”.
•The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioner (Sec. 2(d)) has
been appointed on the recommendation of the constituent committee by the president.
•The Prime Minister (Chairperson), a Union Cabinet Minister (Nominated by the Prime Minister),
and the Leader of the opposition of the Lok Sabha are the member of the Constituent
Committee.

State Information Commission

It is constituted under RTI Act at state level. Subsection (k), (l), and (m) of section 2
talked about the “State Information Commission,” “State Chief Information Commissioner” and
“State Public Information Officer” respectively. According to Section 15 (1), All the State
Government have to constitute a body after getting a notification in the Official Gazette known
as the (name of the State) Information Commission to exercise the power deliberated on and to
accomplish the roles assigned to them as per the Act. In section 15 (2) about the formation of
the State Information Commission (SIC), in this commission there is a provision of the “‘State
Chief Information Commissioner (SCIC)’, and
the maximum number of State Information Commissioners will be ten, as may be deemed
necessary”
• There is a provision about the appointment of the SCIC and
SIC in section 15 (3) of this Act. They are appointed on the basis of constituent committee
recommendations by the Governor.
•This committee consists of “(i) the Chief Minister, who shall be the Chairperson of the
committee; (ii) the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative
Assembly; and (iii) a Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Chief Minister Term of office and
conditions of service”

PIO
Every public authority shall, within one hundred days of the enactment of this Act, designate as
many officers as the Central Public Information Officers or State Public Information Officers, as
the case may be, in all administrative units or offices under it as may be necessary to provide
information to persons requesting for the information under this act.
Every public authority needs to appoint an officer at each sub-divisional level or other
sub-district level as a Central Assistant Public Information Officer (CAPIO) or State Assistant
Public Information Officer (SAPIO) as mentioned in section 5 (2). According to this section if the
competent authority “receive the applications for information or appeals under this Act for
forwarding the same forthwith to CPIO or the SPIO or senior officer specified under sub-section
(1) of section 19”

Process of Procurement of Information

To obtain information under RTI write an application to CPIO/SPIO either in written or electronic
form. This application includes fee as specified in the act. . However, for Below Poverty Line
(BPL) cardholder, the application fee is waived off by the government. The applicant is not
necessarily giving or disclose the reason for asking for the information.
Time period: In normal course, information to an applicant is to be supplied within 30 days from
the receipt of application by the public authority.
If information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person, it shall be supplied within 48 hours.
In case the application is sent through the Assistant Public Information Officer or it is sent to a
wrong public authority, five days shall be added to the period of thirty days or 48 hours, as the
case may be.

Exclusion/ Limitation in RTI

1.Central Intelligence and Security Agencies specified under second schedule are exempted
from RBI.
2.“information, which would prejudicially affect the integrity and sovereignty of
India and the strategic, security, scientific or economic interests of the State, and
relation with foreign State or lead to provocation of an offense will not be provided to the
citizens”
3. That “information, which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State
Legislature will be not available for the citizens”
4. It may not disclosure of information which may constitute contempt of court.
5.That “information, which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State
Legislature will be not available for the citizens”
6. That information received from foreign Government in confidence is not accessible for
citizens.
7. “information is not sharable which is related to the physical safety or endanger of life of any
person or citizens. The source of information or assistance given in confidence for law
enforcement or security purposes is also not accessible to the citizens”
8.Those “information which are related to personal information and not related with the public
activity or interest or which would cause unnecessary incursion of the privacy of the individual
will be not provided to the citizens”

Appreciation
1.Transparency: It ensures the right of the citizens to acquire as much information they want
regarding the governmental activities, rules and regulations, etc. This creates a room for better
communication between the public authorities and the citizens.

2.Citizen-centric approach: Due to the enforcement of this Act, the authorities are sure to let out
information as asked for by the citizens and this made the authorities to think more before taking
any random step.

3.Availability of Information: RTI created an easy form of letting out information to the person
concerned thus resulting in accessibility of information relating to governmental activity to the
person who seeks for such information. Moreover, the application for information is to be
responded by the public servants within 30 days of application.
4.Reduction in Corruption: As all the information is accessible, the graph to that of corruption
has taken a down-curve.

5.Government-public relation: The Act also ensures the strengthening of government-public

relation due to the increase in communication.

6.Greater Accountability: Various government policies like National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme, Sarwa Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal Scheme, National Rural Health
Mission and many others are being launched by the Government.

7.A person can obtain information in any manner, even in disks, floppies, tapes, cassettes, or by
any other means.

Criticism
The RTI Act makes the right to information as a tool to check upon the misuse of the
discretionary power of administrative authorities but it suffers from several drawbacks which
weaken the position of the right to information. The drawbacks are as follows:
1.Section 2(h) defines the term ‘public authority’ but it does not give a comprehensive and
exclusive definition of public authorities which might create confusion.
2.The absence of ‘contempt of court’ make the non-compliance of the order passed by the
information commission .there must be provision insert in this Act.
3.One of the major set-back to the act is that poor record-keeping within the bureaucracy results
in missing files.
4.There is a lack of staffing to run the information commissions.
5.The supplementary laws like the Whistle Blower’s Act are diluted, this reduces the effect of
RTI law.
6.Since the government does not proactively publish information in the public domain as
envisaged in the act and this leads to an increase in the number of RTI applications.
7.There have been reports of frivolous RTI applications and also the information obtained have
been used to blackmail the government authorities.

Despite several limitations, 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.

On the occasion of 16 years of implementation of the RTI Act in India in October 2021, Satark
Nagrik Sangathan has compiled a report on the performance of information commissions across
the country based on information accessed under the RTI Act.
The Report is titled, ‘Report Card of Information Commissions 2020-21’.
The report accused the various Information Commissions of acting as a major bottleneck in
effective implementation of the RTI Law.
Reasons given for negative feedback:
A huge backlog of second appeals,
Lengthy wait time for hearings,
Hesitancy in posting penalties and
Increasing opacity in the working of the commissions
The commissions have been plagued with vacancies,
Poor choice of commissioners,
Untrained staff and
A non-cooperative set of public information officers (PIOs).
Threat to some RTI activists who seek information to expose corruption