THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005
The Law is here – Ready but are we ready to implement it? Unlike in many other laws the Government here has no choice. The Provisions of the Act do not come into force from a date to be notified by the Government. The Government has no such luxury under this Act. Notably, the new law contains a provision which explicitly states that the Act will come into force on the 120th day of enactment. And some provisions come into force immediately; no they already came into force on the 15th June 2005. The whole Act will come into force from 12th October 2005. The Act wills it. In real terms, implementation poses a huge challenge to the government.
Every Public Authority is immediately required to,
maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated;
The Act covers all public authorities. These have been broadly defined to include any body established or constituted by a law of the Central or State Governments. Public authorities also include any body owned, controlled or substantially financed by a Government and any non-Government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by a Government.
The Act confers a right to "information" rather than just "records" or "documents". Information has broadly been defined to permit the inspection of public works including taking samples of materials. The definition also includes "information relating to a private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any law. This is an interesting provision for disclosure by private bodies because it is designed to keep the onus on the Government to collect information from private bodies, rather than requiring the public to chase private bodies themselves.
Proactive Disclosure
The list of information to be proactively published by public authorities is very broad
(1) The particulars of its organisation, functions and duties;
(2) The powers and duties of its officers and employees;
(3) The procedure followed in its decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability;
(4) The norms set out by it for the discharge of its functions;
(5) Information regarding the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records used by its employees for the discharge of its functions,
(6) A statement of the categories of the documents held by it or under its control;
(7) Information regarding any arrangement that exists for consultation or representation, by members of the public, in relation to the formulation of policy or implementation;
(8) Advice given by the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons. Additionally information as to whether the meetings of these are open to the public, or the minutes. of such meetings are accessible to the public;
(9) A directory of its officers and employees;
(10) The monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations;
(11) The budget allocated to each of its agencies, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made;
(12) The details of the implementation of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details and beneficiaries of such programmes;
(13) Particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it;
(14) Details of the information available to, or held by it, reduced in an electronic form;
(15) The particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use;
(16) The names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers.
Information without even asking:
The Act explicitly states that it "shall be a constant endeavour to provide as much information suo motu so that the public have minimum resort to the Act to get information.
Exemptions:
Unfortunately, some exemptions are very broad, with entire agencies exempt from disclosure and a very broad exemption for Cabinet papers and other internal deliberation documents. Notably, however, all of the exemptions are still subject to a public interest override, whereby information may be disclosed "if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests".
There is no obligation to give the following information.
(a) | information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; |
(b) | information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court; |
(c) | information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature; |
(d) | information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; |
(e) | information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; |
(f) | information received in confidence from foreign Government; |
(g) | information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes; |
(h) | information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders; |
(i) | cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers: |
Provided that the decisions of Council of Ministers, the reasons thereof, and the material on the basis of which the decisions were taken shall be made public after the decision has been taken, and the matter is complete, or over: Provided further that those matters which come under the exemptions specified in this section shall not be disclosed; | |
(j) | 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 the disclosure of such information: |
Citizens are supreme:
The Act provides that the information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.
The following agencies are exempted from the provisions of the Act.
1. | Intelligence Bureau. |
2. | Research and Analysis Wing of the Cabinet Secretariat. |
3. | Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. |
4. | Central Economic Intelligence Bureau. |
5. | Directorate of Enforcement. |
6. | Narcotics Control Bureau. |
7. | Aviation Research Centre. |
8. | Special Frontier Force. |
9. | Border Security Force. |
10. | Central Reserve Police Force. |
11. | Indo-Tibetan Border Police. |
12. | Central Industrial Security Force. |
13. | National Security Guards. |
14. | Assam Rifles. |
15. | Special Service Bureau. |
16. | Special Branch (CID), Andaman and Nicobar. |
17. | The Crime Branch-C.I.D.- CB, Dadra and Nagar Haveli. |
18. | Special Branch, Lakshadweep Police. |
It may be noted that while our very famous DRI is in the exempted list, the poor cousin DGCEI, does not figure and the most notable absentee in the list is the dreaded CBI.
How to apply
Apply in writing or through electronic means in English or Hindi or in the official language of the area, to the PIO, specifying the particulars of the information sought for.
Reasons for seeking information are not required to be given;
Pay fees as may be prescribed (if not belonging to the below poverty line category).
Failure to provide information within the specified period is a deemed refusal.
Penalties; There is a penalty for contraventions of the Act and who can contravene? Only the government officers! Every PIO (or an officer from whom the PIO requested assistance) can be penalised Rs 250 per day up to a maximum of Rs 25,000 for not accepting an application; delaying information release without reasonable cause; denying information in bad faith; knowingly giving incomplete, incorrect, misleading information; destroying information that has been requested or obstructing furnishing of information in any manner. The final form of the Act removed references to imprisonment for serious acts of non-compliance with the Act. Disciplinary action under the relevant service rules may be initiated against officials for persistent violation of this Act. And the burden of proof is on the accused officer.
(See full text of the Act in 'What's New')
Are we in for a major change?
One of our reporters called up a Chief Commissioner’s office to find out the location of a help centre. After half a dozen calls he could get through to a very responsible and responsive officer who advised him, “Don’t go the help centres; they are not useful, you go and meet the Assistant Commissioner “
I swear the above incident is true and happened yesterday.
Until Tomorrow with more DDT
Have a nice day.
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