RTI ACT IS MISS USED

In addition to Prakash, I would also like to add that in most of the State, the State Commission under the Act are maned mostly by retired top officials of the State, and when an information is sought from his/her own department in which he/she was the head in the past, can we possibly hope to get the right informations? Regarding the query, yes, there is every chance that it can be missused, but the officials from whom the information is sought can also make out as to why the information is demanded. I am of the view that information should not be given just on mere asking without any reasons.

I agree with Advocate N.K. Assumi . Information to the affected person or the need of the person should be justified before accepting the RTI application. One way is to increase the DD amount  abnormally so that unwanted applications may be reduced to certain level.

 If the information is misused, it means that something fishy happened.  Why should an officer be afraid of the information if he did his work without favour and fear? Only tainted officers who misus their official position are afraid of RTI Act. 

How the anti-social elements come into the picture? Information in the possession of government is public property and whatever action is taken by officers and Ministers ought to have the sanction of law. There is plenty of information buried in government files, which, if it sees the light of the day will make the babus and netas shudder.

If an officer is transparent, he can't be corrupt and vice versa. There is rampant corruption in the country, but, how many babus are punished? Thank the law and judiciary.

What if a person gets a reply  "Information asked is not available". Can he ask again  "Why it is not available, please provide reasons".

RTI can be in fact used against those who have done some thing wrong. This is now being branded as misuse ! If an officer has honestly and sincerely performed his duties, who can harass him through RTI ? It is the wrong doers who should be worried and it will send signals in govt depts to follow rules and be citizen centric. There are adequate provisions u/s 8 of RTI Act to protect security of country and privacy of the individual.   

 Information not available is a ploy to deny information. But, every organisation/department/bank has a schedule for destruction of record. If the requisite information formed part of destroyed record, obviously information would not be available.

dear members

i am sorry that i cannot agree with mr.assumi. there is a clear provision in the RTI act that reasons cannot be asked from the information seeker. CIC has frowned upon PIOs asking for reasons. under the act is amended, the PIO cannot demand any reason for seeking the information.

i also do not agree that RTI act can help in  punishing the wrong doers. it can only show, to a limited extent, that some thing wrong has been done in the particular case. the govt. authorities can very well get away explaining all their complicated decision making processes. RTI act has no provision for punishing the wrong doers. for such queries, the CIC asks the information seeker to go to any other appropriate  forum.    

there will be some wrong doers in a big country like ours. but do not bracket the genuine information seekers with those intent on harassing the authorities.

in fact, only authorities can usually harass the innocent citizen. what power do we have against them? we cannot even vote them out. once a person becomes a public authority, only the govt or court can remove them, and that too after a lengthy and complicated procedure.     hence in my opinion the cases of anybody misusing the information would be too few.

Will anybody give an example of misuse of RTI Act by an anti social element?

There are some examples such as I cannot name them for the purpose of security. The goondas apply for the information under the R.T.I ACT  later even try to negotiate with the honest officer stating that they would publish in the daily news paper and get their work done. That the honest officers are put to harrasement in some areas.

That one best example :- The contractor to defeate another contractor with the wrong intention had chossen some third party person to apply for the  information for the work of asphalting which was done and carried out, so that the honest contractor with the fear that the work which is going on fastg would be put to halt,had tried to negotiate with cores of rupes with the person who had applied for the information. It is the fact.

Other laws are misused equally. 

There is crying shame. Remember 498A, DV Act, SC/ST Act.

dear member

i too share your concern. but one swallow does not make a summer. there will be some persons misusing everything in the society - in our present case some unscrupulous information seekers and public authorities.

but the act itself shuld not be diluted under some pretext or another. i reiterate my question in an earlier posting: what powers do we, ordinary citizens against the bureaucracy? can we remove them from power or can we atleast transfer them?

for all these years, majority of the officers used to hide behind the iron curtain of secrecy. the whole official system was designed to protect flow of information. how many times we had to visit a govt office just to know the status of the smallest request of ours? the standard reply one would get is that they have lots of work to do, your request is defective, we do not have the manpower etc. otherwise, they asked for vitamin m openly.

 now they cannot do it so brazenly, atleast we have a right to know as to what is happening.

please - i appeal to all our members - not to create an impression that the act is being misused by majority of information seekers. pl understand that it is our ONLY weapon against corruption, indifference, maladministration etc.

Mr. Lakshminarayanan is correct that there must be persons misusing everything but the RTI Act is in fact a weapon for common man to fight against the evils of corruption, indifference and mal-administration etc.