RIGHT
TO INFORMATION
The Right to Information Act
(RTI) is an Act of the Parliament of India "to provide for
setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens"
and replaces the erstwhile Freedom of Information Act, 2002. The Act applies to
all States and Union Territories of India except the State of Jammu and
Kashmir. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information
from a "public authority" which is required to reply within thirty
days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records
for wide dissemination and to pro-actively publish certain categories of
information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for
information formally. This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and
came fully into force on 13 October 2005.Information disclosure in India was
restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special laws,
which the new RTI Act relaxes.
The Act covers the whole of India
except Jammu and Kashmir, where J&K Right to Information Act is in force.
It is applicable to all constitutional authorities, including the executive,
legislature and judiciary; any institution or body established or constituted
by an act of Parliament or a state legislature. It is also defined in the Act
that bodies or authorities established or constituted by order or notification
of appropriate government including bodies "owned, controlled or
substantially financed" by government, or non-Government organizations "substantially
financed, directly or indirectly by funds" provided by the government are
also covered in the Act.
The RTI process involves reactive
(as opposed to proactive) disclosure of information by the authorities. An RTI
request initiates the process.
Each authority covered by the RTI
Act must appoint their Public Information Officer (PIO). Any person may
submit a written request to the PIO for 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 (in whole or part), it
is the PIO's responsibility to transfer/forward the concerned portions of the
request to a PIO of the other authority within 5 working days. In addition,
every public authority is required to designate Assistant Public Information
Officers (APIOs) to receive RTI requests and appeals for forwarding to the
PIOs of their public authority. The applicant is required to disclose his name
and contact particulars but not any other reasons or justification for seeking
information.
The Central Information
Commission (CIC) acts upon complaints from those individuals who have not been
able to submit information requests to a Central Public Information Officer or
State Public Information Officer due to either the officer not having been
appointed, or because the respective Central Assistant Public Information
Officer or State Assistant Public Information Officer refused to receive the
application for information.
The Act specifies time limits for
replying to the request.
Ø If
the request has been made to the PIO, the reply is to be given within 30
days of receipt.
Ø If
the request has been made to an APIO, the reply is to be given within 35
days of receipt.
Ø If
the PIO transfers the request to another public authority (better concerned
with the information requested), the time allowed to reply is 30 days
but computed from the day after it is received by the PIO of the transferee
authority.
Ø Information
concerning corruption and Human Rights violations by scheduled Security
agencies (those listed in the Second Schedule to the Act) is to be provided
within 45 days but with the prior approval of the Central Information
Commission.
Ø However,
if life or liberty of any person is involved, the PIO is expected to reply
within 48 hours.
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. 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. Appeal processes are also defined.
RTI does not include the
following information for the disclosure. The following is exempt from
disclosure under section 8 of the Act:-
Ø 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;
Ø 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;
Ø Information, the disclosure
of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;
Ø 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;
Ø 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;
Ø Information received in
confidence from foreign Government;
Ø 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;
Ø Information which would
impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of
offenders;
Ø Cabinet papers including
records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other
officers;
Ø 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);
Ø Notwithstanding any of the
exemptions listed above, a public authority may allow access to information, if
public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests.
However, this does not apply to disclosure of "trade or commercial secrets
protected by law ".
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