Be The Difference You Always Preached For, Your Guide To Filling The RTI

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Right to Information Act 2005 empowers citizens to hold the governance accountable by sought permission for records, files, case study and others.
• This promotes transparency between the people and the government enhancing the real meaning of democracy
• This may curtail corruption and wrong practices by authorities at power
• It’s a modernized mode to keep the public informed and active.

INTRODUCTION

Right to Information (RTI) is an Act of the Indian Parliament relating to the right to information for people about an institution, person or state at large. It superseded the 2002 Freedom of Information Act. According to RTI Act, any Indian citizen may request information from a "public authority” that requires to respond promptly or within thirty days however, in matters involving the life and freedom of an applicant, the details must be submitted within 48 hours. This Act also promotes the basic fundamental right of the people by use of Article 19(1)a right to freedom of speech and expression. The Act further mandates the public bodies to computerize their records for easy access in the future while also voluntarily sharing information on their own sites so that one must reduce the burden of formally asking for the records. This way every man is part of the system while the system is part of every man leaving a very small room for errors to occur. The Act provides a structural flow wherein the exchange of
information can be conducted. The Act was passed by the parliament of india after intense discussion and debates on oct 5 2005 and is applicable to all authoritative bodies such as legislative, executive and judiciary

BACKGROUND

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 that provided everyone the rights and freedom to all human beingsand was adopted by the United Nations. It aims to protect the basic rights of all human later United Nations also adopted The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights in 1966 whose purpose is to promote conditions in the state to allow the basic civil and political rights of the people. In Mr. Kulwal v/s Jaipur Municipal Corporation case, it was brought to attention that freedom of speech and expression provided under Article 19 of the Constitution clearly implies to Right to Information by the Supreme Court in 1986. The Act was first tried by the state of tamil Nadu in 1997 followed by others. As if one doesn’t have access to information their right to speech and expression is being limited which is unconstitutional.

The Controversial Section 8 of RTI Act 2005. WHY

As citizens we all have our legal rights however as stated in the constitution no right is absolute in nature which means some limitation on the legal rights are essential to curb the chaos created by the practice of absolute rights. Even tho the RTI Act id an Act for the people it has to set some boundaries tomake sure one does not misuse these rights and create harm to the sovereignty of the nation. Therefore, there is section 8 introduced in the Act which deals with exemption from disclosure of information under this Act. As citizen we are aware that the government do not release all the information in the public domain due to national security reasons at play to explain further if one files a RTI application to the government seeking information on the types of war machinery our nation holds on, that is a classified information and cannot be shared as it would endanger the lives of the people. Almost every law pertaining to RTI has this sec 8 involved to protect its secrets for the better will of all, alt
hough it cannot be denied that sometimes this section is misapplied for their personal benefits. Sec8(1) has a list of all exemptions such as National security, Economic interest of the nation, trade secrets, personal information etc. However, what really brings the balance in this is Sec8(2) where in an official may request to disclose an information if it believes it to be in public interest. However, public interest is not defined into the Act as a result the authorities in charge have to decide on case-by-case bases which may seem unfair as not everyone gets the same set of rules.

STEPS TO FILLING AN RTI UNDER THE RTI ACT 2005

There is an initiative taken by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions to provide an RTI Portal Gateway for quick search of information on the details of first Appellate Authorities, PIOs etc.

The urlis:https://rtionline.gov.in

• It is important to understand from which of the government office do we want the information from for instance if its regarding college admission from XYZ college, only the college authorities will have the record of the admission process conducted online and offline and not the State board university, therefore knowing which authority to send the RTI request is important.
• One can simply then right their application on a plain paper in their preferred language of choice requesting for the information of their will from the institution, one may choice to ask more than one question however its advice to not ask too many as that might lead into rejection of the application. Simply, because the institution was able to one of the several questions from the RTI filled due to non-disclosure policy it might not respond to other set of questions simply because it was all filled together, therefore one must avoid that mistake.
• There is some amount charged for each RTI one files at each institution that is decided by the authority themselves for instance, the application fee to a central government department is Rs 10/ in form of the Indian postal
• Then just send the application via postal service and then one must receive a reply within 30 days of sending the application, if the institution fails to perform over the RTI then one can complaint to the Central Information Commission
• If the application is not being answered within 30 days of sending the application by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) one can approach the Central information commission with their RTI and complain and actions would be taken the respective authorities

LANDMARK JUDGEMENTS

• Reserve Bank of India v. Jayantilal Mistry (Supreme Court, 2015)

In the above case the question was if the reserve bank of India and other banks deny to provide information sough under RTI due to economic interest, commercial confidence, fiduciary relationship with other Banks. However, the judgment passed by the Supreme court was in the favour of RTI Act for the people as the court believed that RBI had no legal duty to maximize any private or public sector bank and has a statutory duty to hold against the public interest at large and therefore it must act with transparency with the people.

• Jiju Lukose v. State of Kerala (Kerala High Court, 2014)

This case was brough to the CIC where a Public Interest Litigation was being filed as the police station authorities failed to update the FIR on the site despite of the FIR being register for over two months allegedly by the petitioner. The CIC in its judgement stated that under Sec 8(1) of the RTI Act the FIR need not be disclosed to public until the investigation is completed however the accused can obtain a copy of it under the CCP 1973 as its legal right. Under article 8(1) of RTI Act its upon the discretion of the authorities in charge If they deem the FIR to be exempted.

• N N Dhumane v. PIO, Department of Posts (CIC, 2018)

In this pension was denied due to unavailability of Aadhar card by the department, however the CIC stated that payment of pension falls under life and liberty in the RTI Act and therefore within 48 hours should be disposed by the PIO

• Girish Ramchandra Deshpande vs. Central Information Commission &ors. (Supreme Court, 2012)

In this case the apex court held that one cannot file an RTI Act to gain access of an individual’s personal details specifically mentioned in its adaption paper unless it’s in the interest of people at large under clause section (1) (j) of the RTI Act

CONCLUSION

RTI Act 2005 is essential to bring that sense of responsibility on the part of the government while also having the citizen to play a part in it and hold them accountable its truly a powerful weapon if used correctly. There are however many concerns with section 8 of the act which is truly to protect the national secrets but as every authority have their own right to form RTI rules keeping the parent Act in consideration many misuse this power. Classic example of that would be the high court of Allahabad vs common cause case wherein the court violated several rules form the parent Act itself. There’s no surprise that everyone wants to play smart and find loopholes within the system to find their way out, but while such illegitimate practices are being practiced its tarnishing the basic fundamental rights of the common man which needs to be curtailed. Laws are made with an objective to upfit the society but still there are authorities and institutions taking disadvantage of the power vested into them, section 8 from the act can be used in a way to protect and still be advantageous its about finding the right balance. Do you think there will be time when we will get the right balance to use our RTI power?