Targeting RTI in the House
MPs must not run down a law
that promises a more informed citizenry. As part of the assessments,
20,000 RTI applications filed to different public authorities in the
country were collected, of which detailed analysis of a randomly
selected sample of 5000 applications was undertaken. The Right to
Information (RTI ) Act has undoubtedly been a most empowering
legislation for citizens. The law has initiated the vital task of
redistributing power in a democratic framework. It is perhaps this
paradigm shift in the locus of power that has resulted in consistent
efforts by the powerful to denigrate it. The latest attack on the
legislation was witnessed recently in the Rajya Sabha, with several
members of Parliament, across party lines, demanding amendments to the
act. A key allegation made on the floor of the House was that the RTI is
being widely misused, especially to blackmail public functionaries. It
was also argued that government servants are unable to take decisions
objectively for fear of the RTI. This is not the first time that the
issue of misuse of the RTI Act has been flagged. The previous prime
minister alleged that a large number of frivolous and vexatious RTI
applications are being filed resulting in a negative impact on the
efficiency of the government. These assertions, however, are not backed
by data or evidence — a point which the office of the previous PM had to
publicly concede when the RTI was invoked to ask for the basis of the
PM’s views! Similarly, one of the MPs who raised these issues in the
Rajya Sabha has reportedly admitted that his statements were based on
anecdotal evidence drawn from some isolated cases
No fee to be paid for appeals and complaints related to RTI
State
information commission has said that the RTI applicant needs to pay
fees only for the first application for information and no fees shall be
paid for appeals or complaints. The commission issued the notification
in the wake of instances where applicants were made to pay fees for
appeals and complaints as well.
The complaints filed before the
commission as per section 18 of Right to Information act and appeals
filed as per section 19 does not require fees, the commission said. It
has also been pointed out that postal orders, money orders will not be
considered as fees for matters under the control of state government.
Section 6 of the RTI act says that the applicant has to pay the fees as
prescribed by the state government while filing an application for
information. The state government has determined Rs 10 as application
fee as per Kerala Right to Information (Regulation of fee and cost)
rules.
Stay on order exempting ‘T’ branch from RTI Act
A
Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday stayed a January 27
Government Order exempting the T (Top secret) branch of the State
Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau from the purview of the Right to
Information Act. The Bench of Justice P.N. Ravindran and Justice Sunil
Thomas, while issuing the stay order, made it clear that the RTI Act
would continue to apply to the T branch of the VACB. The Bench observed
that a prima facie case had been made out for staying the Government
Order. The order came on a writ petition filed by A. Jayasankar, general
secretary, Indian Association of Lawyers, and its State committee.
According to the petitioner, the T branch was probing the allegations of
corruption against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Ministers, MPs, MLAs
and top IAS/IPS officials. The petitioner contended that the order was
sheer abuse of power. The RTI Act provided for exempting only
Intelligence and security organisations from its purview. In fact, the
VACB was an agency tasked with the job of probing corruption charges
against public officials. The exemption order was issued to cover up
large-scale corruption indulged in by Ministers and higher officials and
with a mala fide intention to prevent the public from knowing the
details of the probe being conducted into the corruption charges against
Ministers and top officials before the Assembly election.The petitioner
pleaded that unless the order was stayed, it would cause irreparable
harm to the general public.
CIC pulls up Civil Aviation Ministry for ‘casual’ approach in RTI
The
Central Information Commission has pulled up the Civil Aviation
Ministry for “casual and callous approach” in handling Right to
Information applications which it said “defeats the spirit” of the law
for empowering citizenry. Chief Information Commissioner Bimal Julka
made these hard-hitting observations while hearing the case where the
ministry could not satisfactorily answer queries on ground handling
services such as “Which out of these are part of Central Government (i)
Indian Airlines (2) BWFS (3) Air India SETS (4) CELBI”.Delhi-based
Jagpal had sought information on a number of queries related to ground
handling work through his RTI application filed in 2013 but satisfactory
responses were claimed to have not been furnished and the application
kept getting transferred from one authority to another including Air
India and Airports Authority of India.
CIC ruling: Cabinet Secretariat to disclose details of agenda under RTI Act
The
Central Information Commission ( CIC) has ruled Cabinet Secretariat
cannot deny access to items on the agenda of the Cabinet after the
meeting is over under Right to Information Act.
In a
pro-disclosure order, chief information commissioner R K Mathur has
directed Cabinet Secretariat to disclose all agenda items under the RTI
Act once the meetings are over.
In a ruling on an RTI plea by
RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
(CHRI), the CIC has also advised the Cabinet Secretariat to “put in
place” a mechanism to monitor departments and ministries for their
compliance with the requirement of sending monthly reports of work done
by them to it.
The order further says that it is “advisable” for
ministries and departments to upload the “unclassified portions” of
their monthly reports to Cabinet Secretariat on their respective
websites. Nayak had filed an RTI application with Cabinet Secretariat
seeking details of Cabinet agenda between August 2014 and December 2014.
