PART A I DIRECTIONS OF SUPREME COURT
– Fee For RTI Application Should Not
Exceed Rs.50/, Rs. 5/- Per Page, Motive Need Not Be Disclosed
The Supreme
Court on March 20, 2018 capped the fee charged by high courts for responding to
queries filed under the RTI Act at Rs. 50 per application, bringing cheers to
activists seeking information under the transparency law.
The bench
comprising Justices A. K. Goel, R. F. Nariman and U. U. Lalit also asked the
high courts not to force applicants to disclose the reason for seeking
information under the Right to Information law.
On the fee: “We
are of the view that, as a normal Rule, the charge for the application should
not be more than Rs.50/- and for per page information should not be more than
Rs.5/-. However, exceptional situations may be dealt with differently. This
will not debar revision in future, if the situation so demands.”
On disclosure
of motive: With regard to the requirement of disclosure of motive for seeking
information, the Court ruled, “No motive needs to be disclosed in view of the
scheme of the Act.
On CJ’s
permission for disclosure of information: The Court noted that the requirement
of seeking permission of the Chief Justice or the concerned Judge for
disclosure of information “will be only in respect of information which is
exempted under the Scheme of Act.”
On transfer of
application to another public authority: The Court opined that while normally
the public authority should transfer the application to another public
authority if the information is not available, the mandate may not apply “where
the public authority dealing with the application is not aware as to which
other authority will be the appropriate authority”.
On disclosure
of information on matters pending adjudication: With regard to the Rules
debarring disclosure of information on matters pending adjudication, the Court
clarified that “the same may be read consistent with Section 8 of the Act, more
particularly sub-section (1) in Clause (J) thereof, bench passed the order on a
batch of petitions challenging the RTI rules of various high courts, and other
authorities like the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly, which imposed
exorbitant fees for application and photocopying.
Advocate
Prashant Bhushan, the counsel for NGO Common Cause, which was one of the
petitioners, said exorbitant fee was charged to disincentivise the general
public from seeking information. He also said the fee should not act as a
deterrent for information seekers.
The petition
filed by the NGO claimed that the Central Information Commission had repeatedly
asked the Allahabad High Court to modify its RTI rules, but its pleas were
ignored.
The Allahabad
High Court was charging Rs. 500 for a reply under the RTI Act, the petition
claimed.
A similar plea
was filed against the Chhattisgarh High Court which had dismissed a petition of
an applicant Dinesh Kumar Soni, and imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on him for
seeking information.
In his
petition, Soni had challenged the Rule 5 and Rule 6(1) of the Chhattisgarh
Vidhan Sabha Secretariat Right to Information (Regulation of fees and costs)
Rules 2011, which require that a person making an application u/s. 6(1) of the
RTI Act was required to pay Rs. 300.
(Source: http://www.livelaw.in/fee-rti-application-not-exceed-rs-50-rs-5-per-pages-motive-need-not-disclosed-read-sc-directions-read-order/)
PART
B RTI ACT, 2005
– India’s
Right to Information in a mess
Over the years, the pendency of cases under
Right to Information (RTI) Act has shown an upward trend with close to two lakh
pending second appeal and complaint cases been reported under the Act across
the country.
According to the latest report “State of
Information Commissions and the Use of RTI Laws in India (Rapid Review 4.0)” by
Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a
New Delhi-based NGO, there were 1.93 lakh pending second appeal and complaint
cases in 19 Information Commissions at the beginning of this year as compared
to 1.10 lakh cases pending across 14 Information Commissions in 2015. The
report based on annual reports and websites of Information Commissions was
released at the Open Consultation on the Future of RTI: Challenges and
Opportunities held in New Delhi in the second week of March.
Maharashtra (41,537 cases), Uttar Pradesh
(40,248), Karnataka (29,291), Central Information Commission (23,989) and
Kerala (14,253) were the top five Information Commissions that accounted for 77
percent of the overall pendency. Pendency in Bihar, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu
among others was not publicly known while Mizoram State Information Commission
(SIC) received and decided only one appeal case in 2016-17, said the report,
adding that SICs of Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya had no pendency at all. The
Central Information Commission and nine SICs (Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu &
Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh)
displayed updated case pendency data on their websites.
Referring to RTI applications, the report
said that around 24.33 lakh RTI applications were filed across the Central and
14 state governments between 2015-17. The report mentioned that it was not
possible to get accurate figures in the absence of annual reports from several
Information Commissions. By a process of extrapolation it may be conservatively
estimated that up to 50 lakh RTI applications would have been submitted by
citizens during the same period, the report added.
About 24.77 lakh RTI applications were
reported in 2015 and it was based on data available for the years 2012-14
(where data was taken for the latest year for which an annual report was
available). The figure for 2015-17 appeared to be a little less but that might
be due to the absence of figures from several jurisdictions where RTI was used
more prolifically, added the report. Furthermore, around 2.14 crore RTI applications
were filed across the country since October, 2005, as per the data published in
the annual reports of Information Commissions accessible on their websites, the
report said, adding that if data was published by all Information Commissions
the figure might have touched 3 to 3.5 crores. Less than 0.5 percent of the
population seemed to have used RTI since its operationalisation, it further
added.
Despite the absence of their latest annual
reports, the Central Government (57.43 lakhs) and the state governments of
Maharashtra (54.95 lakhs) and Karnataka (20.73 lakhs million) continue to top
the list of jurisdictions receiving the most number of information requests.
Gujarat (9.86 lakhs) recorded more RTI applications than neighbouring Rajasthan
(8.55 lakhs) where the demand for an RTI law emerged from the grassroots.
Despite having much lower levels of literacy, Chhattisgarh (6.02 lakh) logged
more RTI applications than 100 percent literate Kerala (5.73 lakhs). Despite
being small states, Himachal Pradesh (4.24 lakhs), Punjab (3.60 lakhs) and
Haryana (3.32 lakhs) registered more RTI applications each than the
geographically bigger state of Odisha (2.85 lakhs). Manipur recorded the lowest
figures for RTI use at 1,425 information requests between 2005-2017. The SIC
did not publish any annual report between 2005 and 2011 and is yet to release
the report for 2016-17.
While the Central government, Andhra Pradesh
(undivided), Assam, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala and Uttarakhand have
recorded an uninterrupted trend of increase in the number of RTI applications
received, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura have reported
a decline in the number of RTI applications received in recent years and the
reasons for the drop in numbers, according to the report, requires urgent
probing. Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Meghalaya, Gujarat, Mizoram,
Odisha and West Bengal have recorded a mixed trend where the RTI application
figures have fluctuated over the years. After seesawing in the initial years, Arunachal
Pradesh has reported a more than 82 percent decline in the number of RTI
applications received in 2015 against the peak reached in 2014. Mizoram also
showed a declining trend of 23 percent in 2016-17 after the peak scaled during
the previous year. West Bengal’s figures rose and dipped to less than 62
percent of the peak reached in 2010 but a rising trend was reported in 2015.
Referring to headless and non-existent SICs,
the report highlighted that there was no State Chief Information Commissioner
(SCIC) in Gujarat since mid-January 2018. While Maharashtra SIC was headed by
an acting SCIC since June 2017, there was no Information Commission in Andhra
Pradesh (after Telangana was carved out in June 2014). The State government had
assured the Hyderabad High Court that it would soon set up an SIC. More than 25
percent (109) of 146 posts in the Information Commissions were lying vacant.
Against 142 posts created in 2015, 111 Information Commissioners (including
Chief Information Commissioners) were working across the country. 47 percent of
the serving Chief Information Commissioners and ICs were situated in seven
states: Haryana (11), Karnataka, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh (9 each), Central
Information Commission, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu (7 each). Six of these
Commissions were saddled with 72 percent of the pending appeals and complaints across the country.
The report further referred that 90 percent
of the Information Commissions were headed by retired civil servants and more
than 43 percent of the Information Commissioners were from civil services
background. This is the trend despite the Supreme Court’s directive in 2013 to
identify candidates in other fields of specialisation mentioned in the RTI Act
for appointment, argued the report. The report further mentioned that only 8.25
percent of the serving SCICs and ICs were women. Only 10 percent (8 out of 79)
of the Information Commissioners serving across the country were women. Three
of these women ICs were retired IAS officers while two were advocates and two
had a background in social service and education. One woman IC in Punjab had a
background in medicine.There were nine women ICs in 2015. The report said that
the websites of SICs of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar could not be detected on any
internet browser and the SICs of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh had not
published any annual report so far. Jharkhand and Kerala SICs each had six
pending annual reports and Punjab had five while Andhra Pradesh had four
pending reports.
(Source: http://www.milligazette.com/news/16188-india-s-right-to-information-in-a-mess)
PART C INFORMATION
ON & AROUND
– Focus On
“Act Rightly” As Much As Right To Information Act, Says PM Modi
Twelve years after it was set up under the
Right To Information (RTI) Act, the Central Information Commission has a new
address — a five-storey environment friendly building in south Delhi, fitted
with information technology and video conference facilities. Earlier, the
highest appellate authority for RTI complaints used to function from two rented
accommodations.
“The greatest asset of a democracy is
an empowered citizen. Over the last 3.5 years we have created the right
environment that nurtures informed and empowered individuals,” said Prime
Minister Narendra Modi who inaugurated the new premises.
At a time when activists have accused the
government of holding back information, PM Modi said like the RTI Act, serious
attention should be paid to “Act Rightly”.
“Many times it has been seen that some
people misuse the rights given to the public for personal gains. The burden of
such wrong attempts is borne by the system”.
Activists say the government is yet to walk
the talk on transparency, and anti-corruption laws await proper implementation.
A Lokpal is yet to be appointed, four years
after the law was put in place. The chief information commissioner was
appointed by the present government after activists went to court. Of the 11
posts of information commissioner, four are vacant and four more retire this
year.
(Source:https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/focus-on-act-rightly-as-much-as-right-to-information-act-says-pm-modi-1821017)
u Ex-corporators
seek right to pursue RTI
Eight former corporators of the Thane
Municipal Corporation (TMC) have filed a criminal writ petition in the Bombay
high court seeking quashing of complaints registered against them by the Thane
police commissioner at the behest of the corporation and its commissioner. The
corporators have alleged that the complaint lodged against them was aimed at
discouraging them from seeking information under Right To Information (RTI) Act
about unauthorised and illegal construction being carried on in the municipal
limits of the corporation.
According to the petition filed by Sanjay
Ghadigaonkar and seven others, all of whom were former corporators in TMC, a
complaint was lodged against them by the Thane police as they had been seeking
information under RTI. The petition has alleged that they had been discouraged
by the corporation from seeking the information, but when it did not deter
them, the police complaints were lodged. The complaint has alleged that the
corporators were misusing the RTI Act for vested interests.
The petition also points to the fact that in
the recent session of the Vidhan Sabha, the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis
had clarified that there was no restriction on anyone from seeking information
under RTI and they cannot be prosecuted for seeking the information, but the
corporation had not heeded the same but had lodged complaints with the police
against them.
The petition while seeking an early hearing
has also prayed for restraining orders against the police from taking any
action against them as well as quashing of the complaints. The petition is
expected to come up for hearing in due course.
RTI shows Left leader’s murderer received
parole every month for 3 yrs.
A Right To Information (RTI) reply has
revealed that CPI(M) leader and murder convict P.K. Kunhanandan was given 15
days parole every month since 2015.
Kunhanandan, one of the convicts in the
murder case of slain leader T.P. Chandrasekharan, is serving a life-term for
the same.
The reply, sought by slain leader’s wife K.
K. Rema, also stated that barring two months (October and November 2017), the
convict had got parole repeatedly from 2015 to 2018.
Chandrasekharan, a local leader of CPI (M)
at Onchiyam in Kozhikode district, left the party in 2009 to form a new one,
Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP); however, his political journey was cut
short, as he was brutally murdered on May 4, 2012, after his party won
considerable number of seats in a local body elections.
Fifteen CPI (M) workers were found guilty in
the case.
Rema is now reportedly considering legal
action against the state government.
(Source:http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/kerala-rti-shows-left-leader-s-murderer-received-parole-every-month-for-3-yrs-118031900030_1.html)
– RTI being
strangled due to Maha’s neglect: Former CIC Gandhi
Former Central Information Commissioner
Shailesh Gandhi today said that the Right to Information Act was being
“strangled” due to the neglect of the state government.
Gandhi has written a letter to Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him to fill the vacancies in the Information
Commission in the state.
“RTI is slowly being strangled in
Maharashtra by not appointing information commissioners. In Maharashtra, there
is vacancy of one Chief Information Commissioner and three commissioners. These
are not being filled despite repeated reminders,” Gandhi stated in his
letter to Fadnavis.
Gandhi said that the pendency at all the
commissions was now alarming and it was in turn killing the objective of the
Act which was transparency.
Sharing the figures of 31,474 pending cases
in four regions, Gandhi said, “Nashik region has 9,931 pending cases, Pune
has 8,647 cases, Amravati 8,026 cases and Mumbai(HQ) has 4,870 cases pending.
These cases are languishing for the want of information commissioners.”
His letter stated that it was a serious
matter and needed immediate attention and claimed that failure to do so would
allow the state to “succeed” in making the RTI Act
“redundant”.
“It will continue as a haven for
rewarding retired bureaucrats and other favourites. It will be an expense
account with no benefit to its citizens,” Gandhi wrote.
He said that Maharashtra was one of the
first states to enact the law when it came into effect in October, 2005 but the
state was now “reeling from the worst levels of pendency in years”.
(Source:http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/rti-being-strangled-due-to-maha-s-neglect-former-cic-gandhi-118031900500_1.html)
– Agents of
RTI justice, information commissions are its biggest bottleneck
A crippling staff shortage and vacancies in
crucial positions at the central and state information commissions is severely
undermining the Right to Information (RTI) Act, a study by NGOs Satark Nagrik
Sangathan (SNS) and Centre for Equity Studies (CES) has found.
According to the study, ‘Report Card on the
Performance of Information Commissions in India’, which looked at 29
information commissions, including the central information commission (CIC),
and is based on data gathered via 169 RTI pleas, the failure of the central and
state governments to proactively put out information in the public domain is
the second biggest bottleneck in the effective implementation of the Act.
The CIC and state information commissions
(SICs) are almost all functioning much below their sanctioned strength. The
CIC, for example, is four short of its sanctioned strength of 10 information
commissioners. Of these, four are set to retire this year.
Also, the Maharashtra, Nagaland and Gujarat
SICs are headless in the absence of a chief information commissioner. Kerala’s,
meanwhile, has only one information commissioner, out of a sanctioned strength
of five.
The information commissions serve the role
of watchdogs in the implementation of the RTI Act, approached by petitioners
when their pleas are either not accepted by a government agency, refused, or
elicit inadequate information.
According to the report, in 2016, the number
of appeals and complaints pending with 23 SICs stood at the “alarming figure of
1,81,852”, growing 9.5 per cent to 1,99,186 at the end of October 2017. The
Mizoram and Sikkim SICs had zero pendency as of October 2017, while information
wasn’t available for other states.
“The assessment found that several ICs were
non-functional or functioning at reduced capacity, as the posts of
commissioners, including that of the chief information commissioner, were
vacant during the period under review,” said the study, which covered the
period from January 2016 to October 2017.
According to the report, Telangana, Andhra
Pradesh and Sikkim had spells where the SICs didn’t function at all, while the
West Bengal SIC did not hear any complaints or appeals for nearly 12 months.
Not surprisingly, the date of resolution for a complaint/appeal filed with West
Bengal SIC in November 2017 was estimated at 43 years later by the NGOs (see
graphic).
Estimated time required for disposal of an
appeal/complaint filed on November 1, 2017.
In a situation of this kind, people have “no
recourse to the independent appellate mechanism prescribed under the RTI Act”,
the report pointed out.
“The transparency in public authorities
completely diminishes. They have no fear or accountability when this happens,”
said RTI activist Subhash Agrawal.
“The poorest of the poor use RTI for
information regarding basic entitlements such as ration cards. If it takes 5
years to get a response then what is the point? Justice delayed is justice
denied,” said Anjali Bhardwaj, co-convenor of the National Campaign for
People’s Right to Information and a founding member of the Satark Nagrik
Sangathan. There are outliers, of course. The SICs for Mizoram and Sikkim
disposed of appeals/complaints in less than a month.
The political side of it
State chief information commissioners, as is
the case with the central chief information commissioner, are appointed by the
government in consultation with the opposition. Agrawal said while not
appointing chiefs was often a government bid to dilute institutions, delayed
appointments resulted several times from a lack of coordination between the
chief minister and the leader of the opposition. “Mayawati and Mulayam Singh
didn’t see eye to eye, so it took a long time for the UP state commission to be
set up,” he added.
“Not having a chief (information
commissioner) is legally unsound. It is the commissioner who runs everything,
while everyone else is supposed to support him,” said Habibullah.
When the last resort crumbles:
The multitude of vacancies is a factor, of
course, but experts pointed out that it was the lack of transparency on the
part of the central and state governments that forced people to file RTI pleas
even for the most basic information.
“The government is not doing its job of suo
motu disclosure u/s. 4(1)(B) of the RTI Act, under which it has to update
information every 120 days,” said Wajahat Habibullah, the first chief
information commissioner.
Agrawal said
“more proactive disclosures by the government can cut the number of RTI pleas
filed by 70%”.
The ‘inexplicable’ overnight drop
The report pointed out how the CIC stated in
an RTI reply that the total number of appeals and complaints pending with it
stood at 28,502 as on 31 December 2016. However, according to its website, only
364 cases were pending with it on 1 January 2017, it added, terming the fall
“inexplicable”.
The returned complaints
Apart from the pendency, concerns have also
been raised about the high number of appeals and complaints returned to
petitioners, several for unspecified reasons, with many people wondering
whether this was a ploy to project lower pendency rates.
“This is extremely problematic as people,
especially the marginalised, reach the commissions after a great deal of
hardship and a long wait,” said the report.
“The number is so high that I suspect cases
were not rejected on solid grounds,” Habibullah added.
Bhardwaj said they had found instances where
cases were wrongfully returned.
She added that when the commissions returned
complaints, it “fails to perform its legal duty as a friend of the petitioner”.
“Many people are unlettered but they do have the right to information,” she
said.
The penalties, or the lack thereof
According to the RTI Act, the information
commissions can impose penalties of up to Rs 25,000 against public information
officers (PIOs) for violations of the RTI Act. However, according to the
report, penalties were rare.
The report added: “Penalties were imposed
in… only 4.1% of the cases where penalties were imposable!”
(Source:https://theprint.in/governance/agents-of-rti-justice-information-commissions-are-its-biggest-bottleneck/41229/)
– Govt
Orders Voluntary Info Disclosure Under RTI
With most of the departments and authorities
in the state yet to disclose voluntary information under Right to Information
(RTI) Act, the government on Friday directed all the concerned officials to
ensure the disclosures as per the transparency law within a week.
“With a view to maintaining conformity with
the provisions of Section 4 of J&K Right to Information Act, 2009, from
time to time, instructions have been issued, impressing upon all the
Administrative Secretaries, Heads of the Departments and Public Authorities of
the State to ensure effective implementation of the provisions of Section 4 of
the J&K RTI Act in letter and spirit by hosting all requisite information
on the official websites and updating them periodically,” reads a circular
issued by the government.
“However, it is being constantly observed
that some of departments are not implementing the provisions of Section 4 of
the Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 and some of them have
yet not created their departmental websites.”
The J&K State Information Commission has
been persistently requesting for ensuring implementation of the provisions of
the J&K Right to Information Act, it said.
“Therefore all such departments as have not
so far created their own departmental websites are impressed upon to do so
within a fortnight and host the requisite material on the websites under the
provisions of Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009, on regular
basis. Further, all the Administrative Secretaries are enjoined upon to furnish
the status on this account to the General Administration Department as well as
State Information Commission within a week’s time positively.”
The CIC had shared details with the GAD about
the status of different departments regarding creation of websites, disclosure
u/s. 4 of the RTI Act, appointment of Public Information Officer and First
Appellate Authority.
The CIC has informed the GAD that many
departments were not disclosing the information as per the Act.
The CIC has also highlighted that the domain
name of GMC Jammu has expired on August 30 last year.
(Source:https://kashmirobserver.net/2018/local-news/govt-orders-voluntary-info-disclosure-under-rti-29164)
– Meghalaya
RTI Activist, Who Went After Cement Firms, Found Murdered
A right-to-information activist who was
working to expose alleged misuse of public funds in Meghalaya was found dead in
the northeast state, police said on Tuesday.
Poipynhun Majaw had been filing applications
under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to check alleged corruption in public
projects in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council.
His body was found near a bridge in
Khliehriat, the district headquarters of East Jaintia Hills, 120 kilometres
from state capital Shillong. He was also the president of Jaintia Youth
Federation.
Police said he was last seen riding a
motorcycle near the East Jaintia Hills deputy commissioner’s office on Monday
night.
“A wrench was found next to the body.
Preliminary inquest suggests the victim was hit on the head leading to his
death,” senior police officer AR Mawthoh said.
Recently, using replies he got from the
authorities under using the RTI route, he had alleged that cement firms have
been mining in the area without permission from the council.
(Source:https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/meghalaya-rti-activist-who-went-after-cement-firms-found-murdered-1826488)
– RBI: SMA details exempted from disclosure under
RTI
Contradicting its reply to an earlier right
to information (RTI) query, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently said
bank-wise information on special mention account (SMA) 1 and 2 is exempt from
disclosure u/s. 8 (1) (a) & (d) of the RTI Act. While SMA 1 refers to loans
where repayments are overdue between 31-60 days, SMA 2 loans are ones where
principal or interest is overdue between 61-90 days. Although these are
technically not non-performing assets (NPAs), but nonetheless indicate
‘incipient stress’. In April 2016, RBI had said in an RTI response that SMA 1
and 2 loans of all banks stood at Rs 6,24,119 crore at the end of December
2015, 9% higher than Rs 5,73,381 crore at the end of June 2015. It had further
said while SBI’s SMA-2 accounts stood at Rs 60,228 crore, or 5.17% of its total
advances, at PNB this exposure was approximately 6.31% of its total loan book
or Rs 24,824 crore. RBI’s executive director and appellate authority Uma
Shankar said on March 7, 2018, that there is no overriding public interest in
the disclosure of credit information. She added that section 45E of the RBI
Act, 1934, contains a specific bar against disclosure of credit information
collected by the central bank. “Though section 22 of the RTI Act, 2005, starts
with a non-obstante clause, the interpretation given to that section by CIC is
that it is not intended to override special enactments,” she said. She said SMA
data is collected by RBI solely for disseminating the information to other
banks having exposure to the accounts reported in SMA by banks.
(Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/rbi-sma-details-exempted-from-disclosure-under-rti/1096387/)
RTI Clinic in April 2018: 2nd, 3rd,
4th Saturday, i.e. 8th, 15th and 22nd
11.00 to 13.00 at BCAS premises.
