Completion of ‘Four years of Right to Information Act’

A brief report on proceedings of the meeting.

On 12th October, 2009 the BCA Society, Indian Merchants’
Chamber and P. C. Governance Trust jointly organised the above meeting in
which many august institutions and NGOs in the city participated in
celebrating the Fourth Anniversary of Right to Information Act introduced on
12th October, 2005.

(1) The meeting started with opening speech of Julio
Rebeiro representing, Indian Merchants’ Chamber. The speaker outlined the
objective and purpose of the Act and gave valuable suggestions on strategy to
be adopted for effective implementation. He expressed his satisfaction that
not only masses in cities but also in villages are becoming aware of the
utility of the Act, which will help in checking corruption and will make Govt.
authorities accountable and answerable.

(2) Narayan Varma representing BCAS Foundation said that
his Foundation has started RTI Clinic and is attending through telephone
service the complaints and grievances of the members of public. The Foundation
publishes articles in newspapers, writes books, articles and publications
which are widely appreciated. He stressed the need to make public movement
more effective.

(3) Anand Castolino of Bombay Catholic Sabha, informed that
his institution organises many meetings in various parts of city of schools
and college students, senior citizens and many others. The persons attending
the meetings participate actively. Every week, clinic is held in the Mahim
office to help persons suffering in hands of corrupt and irresponsible Govt.
authorities.

(4) Paramjeet Singh explained work done by his Dharma RTI
Mission. His concern has established Help Centres aided with computer and
other equipments. The RTI Help Centre is focussing on collecting information
from schools, colleges about non-receipt of Govt. grants and provides
assistance in filing applications. The slum areas in Govandi are also visited
where meetings are held of residents to register their grievances. These are
then forwarded to concerned offices and are followed up thereafter.

(5) Ashok Ravat represented Forum of Free Enterprise, M. R.
Pai Foundation and N. A. Palkhiwala Memorial Trust. He complained about the
road blocks created by administrative persons in replying the applications
filed. The authorities invariably try to take shelter u/s.8 of the RTI Act to
avoid giving answers to questions raised and to furnish details. He informed
that Books, Guides and Information materials are published explaining various
provisions of the Act and Rules. The forum of free Enterprise is also keeping
in touch with Bank Depositors Association. Instances of frauds on depositors
by private banks and co-op. banks have become rampant. Unfortunately a
favourite plea is put forth by those Banks that they are outside the scope of
the Act. He stressed the need to remedy this unfortunate position. Another
road block put in by Govt. authorities is the common plea that the question
does not fit in definition of information. To overcome this, his organisations
are advising those applicants to approach State Information Commission since
S. 81 empowers the Commission to investigate into complaints.

(6) Mr. Rasikbhai representing Tarun Mitra Mandal, reported
that his organisation is conducting various seminars, programmes in Mumbai,
Thane and Navi Mumbai to train public on use of RTI Act effectively. His RTI
centre assists public in drafting applications, appeals and other procedural
matters for better implementation.

(7) The above representations were followed by short
lectures of a few students of law college.

In concluding remarks, the Chairman expressed satisfaction
that the movement is gathering momentum. He hoped that there will be proper
reciprocation from authorities in Govt. and public sector undertakings to make
the legislation meaningful and will bring transparency and will reduce
corruption. Hon. Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud was then requested to enlighten
the audience on this occasion.

Speech of Hon. Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud, Mumbai High
Court

The Hon. speaker said that the society should look to the
legislation not as a tool to raise issues but should consider it as a
movements and as an effective tool to achieve goal of transparency, efficiency
and should inculcate a spirit of social commitment amongst Public servants. It
should become a new way of life, an awakening in the society. It should
replace the apathy, the indifference in the heart of a citizen and should
encourage him to raise his voice against malpractices, which will improve
radically the functioning of Public bodies. The act will replace scepticism
with optimism, will replace apathy with active interest, will replace feeling
of absence of power with sense of actual power. It will encourage involvement,
by shedding indifference and alienation. It will replace the governance from
the hands of administrators into the hands of subjects who are the
beneficiaries. The reports that are published about the issue of non-receipt
of pensions, non- receipt of ration cards, distribution of lands to landless,
issues concerning Aanganwadi, Balwadi and variety of issue concerning
millions.

The Hon. speaker shared his experience on many of those
issues coming before the judiciary, where the judiciary could realise the hard
reality about the injustice done to the subject, by administrators.

Hon. Justice Chandrachud stressed, that there can be no
development without empowerment. Both are interwoven providing information
about governance is a sure way to empower the citizen in quest for
development.

‘At basic level, the right to information provides access to information. It is a means to an end and not an end in itself. There is a much deeper meaning in right to information. It means governance, which makes administrators realise their accountability to society. Though today we are at the threshold, the efforts should be in the direction of attaining the goal at availing access freely without barriers. Dealing with issues concerning judiary, Hon. Chandrachud said that de-regulation is becoming a Mantra of the day, in process of greater involvement of private sector. Impact of liberalisation or deregulation. Right to know is a constitutional right and the same cannot be abrogated confining the scope of the Act only to Govt. administration or public bodies.

Definition of Information given in the Act, covers information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a Public authority under any other law for the time being in force. Therefore, according to Hon. speaker, what can be accessed by Public authority can be accessed by any individual citizen also. Therefore, though the implementation is presently focussed on Public governance or Public officials, it has to be extended to private governance in course of time.

The implementation will have to be carried out at two different levels. Firstly, creating awareness of right in all stratas of society in Urban and Rural areas. It should be institutionalised by going beyond individuals. Their experiences should be shared. For easy and quick access the speaker said that the judicial Dept. has developed a software to have quick reference to pendancies of cases before the Court. Taking it as sample, softwares can be developed to have an access to statistics about issues regarding disposal of pending applications, subjectwise areawise, the information as to whether Appeals are disposed of expeditiously or not and other administrative issues. Mechanisation of operations in every part of functioning will greatly help attaining process of transparency and administrative efficiency. S. 8 of the Act is misused by authorities to deny access to information. But unless the information is of commercial confidence or related to national security, the access can not be denied. We need an era, where disclosure must be the norm and suppression of information should be an exception. It is only then the goal of having a free society with informed citizens can be attained.

The meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to Hon. Justice Chandrachud and to all dignitaries representing activist organisations for actively participating in the meeting.