The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) is a Central Legislation “to provide for setting out the particular regime of right to information for citizens”[1]. The government of India enacted Right to Information Act in the year 2005 and which came into force on October 12, 2005. It has replaced the Freedom of Information Act 2002. RTI has helped in promoting transparency and accountability. Public dealings are no more a secret as RTI puts a check on all this.
BACKGROUND
The emergence and development of Information Acts in India can be traced back to the Lok Sabha elections of 1977. In 1977 there was a public resentment against suppression of information, press censorship and abuse of authority during the Internal emergency of 1959-77. Moraji Desai led Janata Party in its 1977 election manifesto promised an “open government”. In persuasion to this commitment he constituted a working group in 1977 to ascertain if the Official Secrecy Act, 1923 could be modified so as to facilitate greater flow of information to the public. But the group recommended no change to the act. Then in 1986 supreme court through its judgement 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.[2] In 1977, Tamil Nadu became the first state in the country to have a law on Right to Information. Then in 2000 National Democratic Alliance (NDA) introduced the Freedom of Information Bill, 2000 in Parliament which was finally passed by parliament on 4th December 2002. In 2004, on the recommendation of the National Advisory Council, the UPA government in 2005 introduced Right to Information Act, 2005[3].
What Led to emergence of information act in India?
There are three reasons which have led to the emergence of Information Act in India
1)Corruption and Scandals
India is a country of 1.3 billion population, with more than 2500 registered political parties across the country. Information acts are tools given by the government to fight against corruption. India being a large country puts obligation on government and non government authorities funded by government to perform their respective functions. Information act gives the right to people to keep check on activities of government and non-government (funded by government) authorities. These information act have unveiled various scams and scandals for example: – Adarsh society scam, 2G Scam etc.
2)International Pressure and Activism
The 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[4]. The inception of right to information in International law can be seen way before the inception of the Information act in India. The increase in the number of scandals after independence and suppression of information links between government and people lead demand for codification of the Information act which can lead to the transparency of governmental actions.
3)Modernization and the information society
An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity[5]. With the advent of technology in life, people have become more curious to know what is currently happening in their country and worldwide? How the government chosen by them is working? etc. So, the awareness and curiosity of people as well as modernization of society have led to development of Information act in India.
What type of information can be requested through RTI?
1)The citizens can seek any information from the government authorities that the government can disclose to the parliament.
2)Information relating to internal security, relations with foreign countries, intellectual property rights (IPR), cabinet discussions are exempted from RTI. Some information that can affect the sovereignty and the integrity of India is exempted from the purview of RTI[6].
Importance of the Right to Information Act, 2005
1)This law empowers people to ask for information about central, state governments including non-governmental organizations which are substantially funded by the government.
2)The law gives citizens of India the tools to fight against corruption.
3)RTI gives people the right to hold the government and organizations substantially funded by the government accountable
4)The Right to Information Act gives citizens the right to ask for information and decide, based on the information received, whether their constitutional rights have been met.
5)This law arms individuals with information so that they can advocate for themselves[7].
BIG SCAMS REVEALED BY RTI
1)Adarsh Housing Society Scam – A 31-storey apartment complex, called the Adarsh Housing Society, was built in Colaba in South Mumbai for 1999 Kargil war heroes and war widows. Shortly after the RTI came into force, activists Simpreet Singh and Yogacharya Anand ji embarked on a quest to expose how politicians, bureaucrats and military officials had flouted rules to acquire flats below market rates, which culminated in the resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, whose own relatives were allottees in the building[8].
2)2G Scam – In 2011, India’s telecom scandal aka the 2G scam clinched the second spot in Time Magazine’s “Top 10 Abuses of Power” list, bested only by Watergate. The 2G scandal involved the Telecom Ministry, led by Andimuthu Raja, undercharging mobile phone companies for frequency allocation licenses, allegedly for bribes, which ended up costing the Indian government Rs1,76,645 crore[9].
3)Commonwealth Games – India was still reeling from the 2G Scam, when it was hit by the dubious dealings of Suresh Kalmadi, a lawmaker from Pune, who was charged with fashioning the 2010 Commonwealth Games into a world-class event. Instead, he allowed CWG to become an incubator of corrupt deals and set the country up for being humiliated.
EFFECT OF 2019 AMENDMENT ON RTI?
The core concept of RTI act is to provide information to people of India, to keep a check on governmental actions and to have a transparent democratic government. This act of keeping a check on the public authorities, which are being governed by people in power can only be accomplished if the Information commission is independent of any kind of political influence. This 2019 amendment in RTI act has demolished the wall between politics and right to information.
Amendment and its effect[10]
Section 13 of RTI Act: – The amendment proposes that the tenure of the Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioner’s terms will be decided by the central government. Section 13(5), which prescribed that the salary and allowances of the CIC and the IC will be equal to that of the Chief Justice of India and Supreme Court judges respectively, has been amended to state that it will be decided by the central government.
EFFECT
After the amendment to the RTI Act, the information commissioners will be totally dependent on the government for their tenure and salaries, fear activists. Right now, the CIC can summon any public authority, including the prime minister. But with the introduction of the new amendments, the CIC may come under pressure while dealing with a powerful public authority.
2)Section 16 of RTI Act: – The amendment proposes that CIC and ICs’s tenure in office and salary will be decided by the central government.
EFFECT
Like with the Central Information Commissioner and the ICs, the central government will now decide the terms of their state-level counterparts as well. It gives the power to the central government to sack the state chief information commissioner any time, as well as decide their emoluments.
3)Section 27 of RTI Act: – With the amendment, the government can also make changes in the terms of office of the CIC, ICs at both the central and state levels, as well as the salaries, allowances and other terms and conditions, through a notification in the official gazette.
EFFECT
What this amendment does is that the government does not have to go to Parliament to make changes in the terms of appointment. Carrying out changes by notifying in the official gazette makes the process easy, and not subject to any scrutiny.
CONCLUSION
Undoubtedly the Right to Information Act is the most powerful tool given by the government to people. The RTI act has helped in promoting transparency and accountability. It makes the elected representatives accountable to the people for the promises made by them and the works and projects taken up and executed by them. Despite the fact that such a powerful tool is given by the government to people, there are still some hindrances that are restricting its use. One such is delay in output of information from the concerned public authority in which RTI is filed due to a smaller number of employees in comparison to number of RTI filed. Another hindrance is interference of politics in the Information Commission by the 2019 amendment. No government department can work in accordance with the purpose for which it is created if there is a political influence, the most common example is Police. Thus, in order to fulfill the objective of the right to information act it is necessary that it should be made independent of political influence.
References:
1. http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/1821/Right-to-Information-Act—Boon-or-Bane.
2. https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/paper4/right-to-information-1
3. https://selflearn.co/pick-of-week-post/right-to-information-rti-act-2005
4. https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/paper4/right-to-information-1
5. Soll, Jacob, 1968- (2009). The information master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s secret state intelligence system. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-02526-8. OCLC 643805520.
6. https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/right-to-information-rti
7. https://www.pacer.org/international/India/laws/righttoinfo
8. https://indianexpress.com/article/what-is/what-is-the-adarsh-scam-4994206/
9. https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/what-is-2g-scam-in-india-2g-scam-verdict-upa-a-raja-cbi-judge-op-saini-verdict-things-to-know
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-koqQYQwrqA
About the author –
This article is authored by Pranav Bansal, Second year B.A. LL.B. (Hons) student at GD Goenka University, Gurugram.
