Role of Right to Information Act, 2005 in Institutionalizing Transparency in Indian Governance
“Where a society has chosen to accept democracy as its creedal faith, it is elementary that the citizens ought to know what their government is doing.” -Justice P N Bhagwati
Transparency
is the sine qua non of participatory democracy. Free flow of information
is essential for the health of democratic society. The Right to Information
Act, 2005 came as a march which broke the unrevealed silence. Transparency
involves ready access to reliable, comprehensive, timely, understandable, and
internationally comparable information on government activities and
accountability encapsulates three main elements; answerability- the need for
justification of actions; enforcement- the sanction that could be imposed if
the action is found to be unsatisfactory; and responsiveness - the ability of
those held accountable to respond to the demands made.
The Right to Information Act, 2005
In
India, till 2005, the citizens had no access to any information which was dealt
by a Public Authority. The promulgation of Right to Information Act (2005) set
the stage for the transparency in the functioning of the government and its
various agencies. Under this Act, access to information from a public agency
has become a statutory right of every citizen. In its enactment, it had been
argued that the system of government in India is so opaque that ordinary
citizens do not have much information about how decisions are made and how
public resources are utilized. In effect, RTI Act is a vehicle for greater
transparency about the manner of functioning of public agencies.
What
constitutes ‘Information’?
Section 2(f) of RTI Act
defines “information” as any material in any form, including records, documents,
memos, e-mails, opinions, advice, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks,
contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any
electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be
accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force;
What
is ‘Right to Information’?
So as per Section 2(j) “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—
(i) inspection of work, documents,
records;
(ii) taking notes, extracts, or
certified copies of documents or records;
(iii) Taking certified samples of
material;
(iv) Obtaining information in the form of
diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or
through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any
other device;
Section 2(h) of the RTI Act defines “public authority” as 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;
Apart from public authority, one may also
access information of any private entity, subject to the condition that the
public authority may be legally entitled to access such information sought by
you under any existing law.
Exemption from disclosure of
information:
Exemptions
against furnishing information under the RTI Act have been provided under
Section 8(1) and Section 9 of the Act. Unless the public authority is able to
demonstrate that information sought for falls under any of the exempted
categories of information, it would be bound to provide the information and
that reasons for rejection of requests for information must also be clearly
provided. Section 8 (1) of the RTI Act being a non-obstante provision,
over-rides other provisions of the RTI Act.
Right
to Information as a Fundamental Right:
The landmark case in freedom of the
press in India was Bennett Coleman and
Co. v. Union of India[1],
where the right to information was held to be included within the right to
freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Art. 19 (1) (a).
The Court explicitly stated that it is
not in the interest of the public to ‘cover with a veil of secrecy the common
routine business - the responsibility of officials to explain and to justify
their acts is the chief safeguard against oppression and corruption.[2]
The
Hub of Transparency-
There are two separate bodies to hear
complaint and appeals under the RTI Act, 2005. For central level there will be
Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commission (SIC).
CIC will deal with the matter pertaining to central level public authorities
and SIC state level public authorities.
RIGHT
TO INFORMATION IN CONSONANCE WITH RIGHT TO PRIVACY
Dr Manmohan Singh opined “There is a fine balance required to be
maintained between the right to information and the right to privacy, which stems
out of the fundamental right to life and liberty. The citizens' right to know
should definitely be circumscribed if disclosure of information encroaches upon
someone's personal privacy. But where to draw the line is a complicated
question,"
According to Section 8(1)(j) of the
Right to Information Act, 2005, information which has been exempted from
disclosure at the instance of a citizen of this country is defined as;
“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 unless the Central Public
Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate
authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest
justifies disclosure of such information.” privacy law and right to information
law are like two sides of the same coin – acting as complementary rights that
encourage individual’s right to protect them and to promote government
accountability. The conflict between these two rights needs to be reconciled
and harmonized .
Though the RTI is a remarkable piece of
legislation yet it has issues and challenges in its execution and
implementation. To ensure accountability the RTI shall target mismanagement,
abuse of discretion, corruption and other administrative malpractices. One can
see Right to Information as the key to strengthen participatory democracy and
promoting people-centric governance. Downtrodden sections of the society can be
empowered by giving them access to information so that they can demand their
welfare and actually bring into operation the numerous beneficial schemes of
the government, which due to lack of administrative intent to bring them in
action mostly remain on paper.
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