1.

INTRODUCTION

At the International level, Right to Information and its aspects find articulation as a human right in
most important basic human rights documents, namely, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. At regional levels, there are numerous other human rights
documents, which include this fundamental right for example, the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the American Convention on Human
Rights, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, etc. The Commonwealth has also
formulated principles on freedom of information.

The Indian Parliament had enacted the “Freedom of Information Act, 2002” in order to promote,
transparency and accountability in administration. The National Common Minimum Program of
the Government envisaged that “Freedom of Information Act” will be made more “progressive,
participatory and meaningful”, following which, decision was made to repeal the “Freedom of
Information Act, 2002” and enact a new legislation in its place. Accordingly, “Right to
Information Bill, 2004” (RTI) was passed by both the Houses of Parliament on May, 2005 which
received the assent of the President on 15th June, 2005. “The Right to Information Act” was
notified in the Gazette of India on 21st June, 2005. The “The Right to Information Act” became
fully operational from 12th October, 2005. This new law empowers Indian citizens to seek any
accessible information from a Public Authority and makes the Government and its functionaries
more accountable and responsible.

During the period of the implementation of the RTI Act i.e. October 2005 onwards, it has become
evident that there are many anticipated and unanticipated consequences of the Act. These have
manifested themselves in various forms, while some of the issues pertain to procedural aspects of
the Government; others pertain to capacity building, and so on. The most important aspect to be
recognized is that there are issues to be addressed at various ends for effective implementation of
the Act.

There have been many discussions and debates about the effectiveness and impact of the Act. The
Civil Society Organizations and Government agencies have been engaging themselves in the
debate over various aspects of the Act and its effectiveness and interpretations. There is a broad
consensus that the implementation of the Act needs to be improved to achieve the objectives. At
the same time there is evidence to suggest that the information seekers too have to learn how to
use the Act more effectively. While there is significant information – both anecdotal and
quantitative – on the level of implementation of the Act, there was limited systematic and
comprehensive review available for action by the appropriate Governments. This in turn
necessitated a review of all the aspects necessary to analyze the current situation and draw up a
plan to bridge the gaps. 1

In the above context, Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pension, Government of India, had engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for
assessing and evaluating the Act with specific reference to the key issues and constraints faced by
the “Information Providers” and “Information Seekers”. The scope of study included review of the
experiences of the Central and State Governments in implementing the RTI Act, review of the
experiences of various categories of information seekers, diagnosis of the situation, suggestion of
the nature of interventions to be made and preparation of action plan/recommendations.

1
. Available at: http://rti.gov.in/rticorner/studybypwc/introduction.pdf; last accessed on 06/11/2016
 2. BRIEF HISTORY OF RTI

The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) was founded in 1996. Its
founding members included social activists, journalists, lawyers, professionals, retired civil
servants and academics. One of its primary objectives was to campaign for a national law
facilitating the exercise of the fundamental right to information. As a first step, the NCPRI and the
Press Council of India formulated an initial draft of a Right to Information (RTI) law. This draft,
after extensive discussions, was sent to the Government of India in 1996. The Government finally
introduced the Freedom of Information Bill in Parliament, in 2002. This was a very watered down
version of the Bill first drafted by the NCPRI and others in 1996. Meanwhile, the NCPRI was also
campaigning for state RTI acts and supporting the efforts of state governments, like Karnataka,
Delhi and Rajasthan.

In August 2004 the NCPRI forwarded to the National Advisory Council a set of suggested
amendments to the Freedom of Information Act 2002. These amendments, designed to strengthen
and make more effective the 2002 Act, were based on extensive discussions with civil society
groups working on transparency and other related issues and were in response to the undertaking
given by the UPA government, in their Common Minimum Programme, that the “Right to
Information Act will be made more progressive, participatory and meaningful.” The NAC
endorsed most of the suggested amendments and recommended them to the Prime Minister of
India for further action. These formed the basis of the subsequent Right to Information Bill,
introduced in Parliament on 22 December 2004.

However, this bill, as introduced in Parliament, had many weaknesses. Most significantly,
unlike the NCPRI suggestion, it did not apply to the whole country but only to the Union
Government. The consequent outrage from civil society groups, including the NCPRI, forced the
government to review the changes. The Bill was referred to a Standing Committee of the
Parliament and to a Group of Ministers. The standing committee asked several of the NCPRI
members to give evidence before it, and ultimately endorsed the stand taken by the NCPRI in
most matters. In the next session of Parliament, the bill was passed after over a hundred
amendments introduced by the government to accommodate the recommendations of the
Parliamentary Committee and the Group of Ministers. Most important, the jurisdiction of the Bill
was extended to cover the whole of India. The RTI Act then came into effect all over India, from
13 October 2005. 2

2
. Available at: http://righttoinformation.info/about-us/brief-history-demand-for-the-right-to-information/; last
accessed on 06/11/2016.
 3. OBJECTIVE OF THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005

The sole objective of the Right to Information Act 2005 is as following:

“An Act to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to
secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote
transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a
Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected
therewith or incidental thereto.”

Above statement articulated as a soul objective in the Act includes the following objectives /
points:

1) To setup the practical regime:

However, article 19(1)(a) of the India’s constitution provides “Freedom of Expression”, as a

Fundamental Right and as well as in the matter of State of UP v Raj Narain3, Supreme Court of
India has already declared “Right To Know” as a fundamental Right under article 19(1)(a). It
means to know the information any one can approach to the High Court or Supreme Court
directly, but this efforts was not enough to avail the information properly and systematically as
well as uncertainty was their regarding its applicability which was creating ambiguous situation
and facing difficulties to avail the information from the various agencies of government and non-
government organizations. Therefore in order to provide systematic and concrete mechanism
Parliament of India enacted “Right To Information Act 2005” which facilitate the citizen to avail
all kind of information with reasonable restriction mentioned as a general and specific exception
under Section 8, 9, and 24 of the same Act.

2) For citizens:

According to Section 3 of RTI Act only citizen of India is eligible to file the application for any
information subject to this Act but the guideline issued by Ministry of Personnel, Public
Grievances & Pensions Department of Personnel & raining, through their letter No.1/69/2007-IR
dated 27th February 2008, directs that, if any RTI Application filed on the behalf of organization,
in such case, instead of rejection that should be accepted as a personal application on the behalf of
that name of the person mentioned in the RTI Application.

3
. (1975)4 SCC 428
 3) To secure access to information under the control of public authorities,

Definition of Public Authority in Section 2(h) of RTI Act includes all the governmental
organizations, and as well as , those Non Governmental Organizations substantially financed by
the Government but Act doesn’t revealed the percentage of financial aids for this purpose which
raise the ambiguous situation and dependability on the court’s decision.

The expression “under the control of public authority” which is perused in final part of the Section
2(f) while defining the word “Information” that, “information relating to any private body, which
can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force” means
citizen can access the information which is directly related to the activities of that Public Authority
as well as those information regarding private body which is held by that Public authority.

4) To promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority,

This Act ensure to eradicate the any type of corruption in Public Authority by providing
mandatory obligation to the Public Authority to make ensure to disseminate the information
sought by the Indian citizen within a certain time period with nominal fee. The information
accessed can also be used as evidences in the court of law.

5) The constitution of a Central Information Commission and State Information

Commissions:

To provide the proper remedy with objectivity state and central commissions has been established
separately by this Act (Refer Chapter 3 & 4 respectively). In such Commissions Second Appeal
and Complaint can be filed by citizen without any fee. The status of Chief Commissioners and
other Commissioners are same as the Chief and other Election Commissioners respectively.

6) Matters connected to Public Authority or incidental thereto:

This is the first Act in India which provides the controlling power to the citizen in which Public
Authorities are compelled to disseminate the information which is either directly or indirectly
connected to them. Even if sought information is not belongs to particular Public Authority, in
such case, that Public Authority is compelled to transfer to the relevant Public Authority instead of
rejection. 4

4
. Available at: http://www.rajender.myehome.in/Objectives%20of%20RTI%20Act.html; last accessed on
06/11/2016
 4. RIGHT TO INFORMATION AND INDIAN CONSTITUTION

The Constitution of India does not specifically use the word right to information. But it is the
considered opinion of many experts that in a number of articles there are clear hints to this right.
For example, Art. 19(1)(a) says that all citizens have the right to freedom of speech and
expression. But this right is not absolute. Art. 19(2) provides the reasonable restrictions to this
right.

In spite of the constitutional limitations upon the freedom of speech and expression the Indian
judiciary has interpreted this right in a different way which has introduced the right to information.
In the opinion of the judiciary the right to freedom of speech and expression has no practical value
without the right to information, because whenever a citizen wants to express his view he must be
in possession of sufficient information about the issue on which he expresses his opinion.

Hence if the right to freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right, the right to
information is also a fundamental right. Now if the rights conferred by Art. 19(l)((a) is guaranteed
by invoking the Art. 32 of our Consti-tution, the right to information is also guaranteed by Art. 32.
Art. 32 says that the citizens have the right to move the Supreme Court for the enforcement of the
right. Hence we are of opinion that the right to information is also guaranteed by the highest court.

The Kerala High Court in its judgment of a case in 2010 said that the right to information is
considered as an integral part of the right to freedom of speech and expression. Art. 226 says that
every High Court shall have power to issue to any person or authority for the enforcement of right.

The Preamble to the Constitution of India also contains certain declarations or we may call
promises some of which are indications of the right to information. For example, our Constitution
promises to give to Indians the liberty of thoughts’, expression, belief, faith and worship. This
promise given by our Constitution also indirectly supports the right to information.

Without information, thought and belief can never germinate or develop in the mind of people.
The Preamble further says that the people will have the scope to believe anything. But- every
belief will have a solid foundation which is information. We, therefore, say that most of the parts
of the Preamble are closely connected with the right to information.

Our Constitution provides for a parliamentary form of government. Members of the parliament
and state assembly are directly elected by people. Recently the Election Commission has made it
mandatory for every person contesting election to publish certain basic information about him.
The purpose is that the voters must know the person whom they are going to or elect. This means
that the legislature must consist of persons of high quality and good character. We cannot expect a
healthy tree from a defective seed. Hence we hold the view that the very foundation of good
democracy is well-informed and honest electorate. This, in turn, leads to the affirmation and
implementation of the right to information. To sum up, our Constitution, in various ways,
confirms the right to information. 5

5
. Available at: http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/india-2/right-to-information/right-to-information-introduction-
origin-and-indian-constitution/63473/; last accessed on 06/11/2016.
 5. THE CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION

Chapter III of the Right to Information Act, 2005 provides for the Central Information
Commission. Section 12 provides for the constitution of the Central Information Commission. It
states:

(1) The Central Government shall, by notification in the Official Gazette, constitute a body to be
known as the Central Information Commission to exercise the powers conferred on, and to
perform the functions assigned to, it under this Act.

(2) The Central Information Commission shall consist of—

(a) the Chief Information Commissioner; and

(b) such number of Central Information Commissioners, not exceeding ten, as may be
deemed necessary.

(3) The Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners shall be appointed by
the President on the recommendation of a committee consisting of—

(i) the Prime Minister, who shall be the Chairperson of the committee;

(ii) the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; and

(iii) a Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.

Explanation.—For the purposes of removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that where the Leader
of Opposition in the House of the People has not been recognised as such, the Leader of the single
largest group in opposition of the Government in the House of the People shall be deemed to be
the Leader of Opposition.

(4) The general superintendence, direction and management of the affairs of the Central
Information Commission shall vest in the Chief Information Commissioner who shall be assisted
by the Information Commissioners and may exercise all such powers and do all such acts and
things which may be exercised or done by the Central Information Commission autonomously
without being subjected to directions by any other authority under this Act.

(5) The Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners shall be persons of
eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social
service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance.
(6) The Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner shall not be a Member
of Parliament or Member of the Legislature of any State or Union territory, as the case may be, or
hold any other office of profit or connected with any political party or carrying on any business or
pursuing any profession.

(7) The headquarters of the Central Information Commission shall be at Delhi and the Central
Information Commission may, with the previous approval of the Central Government, establish
offices at other places in India. 6

Section 13 provides for the term of office and conditions of service. It states:

(1) The Chief Information Commissioner shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on
which he enters upon his office and shall not be eligible for reappointment:

Provided that no Chief Information Commissioner shall hold office as such after he has
attained the age of sixty-five years.

(2) Every Information Commissioner shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on
which he enters upon his office or till he attains the age of sixty-five years, whichever is earlier,
and shall not be eligible for reappointment as such Information Commissioner:

Provided that every Information Commissioner shall, on vacating his office under this sub-
section be eligible for appointment as the Chief Information Commissioner in the manner
specified in sub-section (3) of section 12:

Provided further that where the Information Commissioner is appointed as the Chief
Information Commissioner, his term of office shall not be more than five years in aggregate as the
Information Commissioner and the Chief Information Commissioner.

(3) The Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner shall before he enters
upon his office make and subscribe before the President or some other person appointed by him in
that behalf, an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the First
Schedule.

(4) The Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner may, at any time, by
writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign from his office:

Provided that the Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner may

be removed in the manner specified under section 14.

(5) The salaries and allowances payable to and other terms and conditions of service of —
6
http://rti.kerala.gov.in/actch3.htm
 (a) the Chief Information Commissioner shall be the same as that of the Chief Election
Commissioner;

(b) an Information Commissioner shall be the same as that of an Election Commissioner:

Provided that if the Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner, at

the time of his appointment is, in receipt of a pension, other than a disability or wound pension, in
respect of any previous service under the Government of India or under the Government of a
State, his salary in respect of the service as the Chief Information Commissioner or an
Information Commissioner shall be reduced by the amount of that pension including any portion
of pension which was commuted and pension equivalent of other forms of retirement benefits
excluding pension equivalent of retirement gratuity:

Provided further that if the Chief Information Commissioner or an Information

Commissioner if, at the time of his appointment is, in receipt of retirement benefits in respect of
any previous service rendered in a Corporation established by or under any Central Act or State
Act or a Government company owned or controlled by the Central Government or the State
Government, his salary in respect of the service as the Chief Information Commissioner or an
Information Commissioner shall be reduced by the amount of pension equivalent to the retirement
benefits:

Provided also that the salaries, allowances and other conditions of service of the Chief
Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioners shall not be varied to their
disadvantage after their appointment.

(6) The Central Government shall provide the Chief Information Commissioner and the
Information Commissioners with such officers and employees as may be necessary for the efficient
performance of their functions under this Act, and the salaries and allowances payable to and the
terms and conditions of service of the officers and other employees appointed for the purpose of
this Act shall be such as may be prescribed.

Section 14 provides for the removal of Chief Information Commissioner or Information

Commissioner. It states:

(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (3), the Chief Information Commissioner or any
Information Commissioner shall be removed from his office only by order of the President on the
ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity after the Supreme Court, on a reference made to it
by the President, has, on inquiry, reported that the Chief Information Commissioner or any
Information Commissioner, as the case may be, ought on such ground be removed.
(2) The President may suspend from office, and if deem necessary prohibit also from attending the
office during inquiry, the Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioner in
respect of whom a reference has been made to the Supreme Court under sub-section (1) until the
President has passed orders on receipt of the report of the Supreme Court on such reference.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), the President may by order remove
from office the Chief Information Commissioner or any Information Commissioner if the Chief
Information Commissioner or a Information Commissioner, as the case may be,—

(a) is adjudged an insolvent; or

(b) has been convicted of an offence which, in the opinion of the President, involves moral
turpitude; or

(c) engages during his term of office in any paid employment outside the duties of his
office; or

(d) is, in the opinion of the President, unfit to continue in office by reason of infirmity of
mind or body; or

(e) has acquired such financial or other interest as is likely to affect prejudicially his
functions as the Chief Information Commissioner or a Information Commissioner.

(4) If the Chief Information Commissioner or a Information Commissioner in any way, concerned
or interested in any contract or agreement made by or on behalf of the Government of India or
participates in any way in the profit thereof or in any benefit or emolument arising there from
otherwise than as a member and in common with the other members of an incorporated company,
he shall, for the purposes of sub-section (1), be deemed to be guilty of misbehaviour.
 6. CONCLUSION

The Right to Information Act, 2005 has proved itself to be a milestone and a backbone in the
smooth functioning of the democratic mechanism of the nation.

The provisions contained in the Act relating to the Central Information Commission are very
detailed and are very clear to understand, and provision makes it very clear and fine to understand
the act and the object of the act and commission.

The Act ensures transparency and makes the government realise that it is the government of the
people by the people for the people. It ensures the true notions of democracy. It empowers the
citizens to access to information so that people can get information about the functioning of the
government that they have elected.