Dilution of RTI Act not acceptable: Commissioners to DoPT

Any effort to "dilute" the RTI Act through legislative changes was strongly opposed by Information Commissioners from the Centre and states during a meeting on Wednesday with the Department of Personal and Training -- the nodal organisation for RTI implementation.

Minister of State for Personnel and Training Prithiviraj Chavan invited views of Information Commissioners on amending the transparency law and introducing clauses like restricting "vexatious and frivolous" applications as also constituting benches by the Commission, official sources said.

Majority of Commissioners said there was no need to change the law and the concerns of the Ministry can be addressed by introducing adequate rules, they said.

"There is no need to amend the law. As far as vexatious and frivolous applications are concerned, there are in-built mechanism to curb the practice. Who will decide which application is frivolous. The changes suggested by the Department are aimed at diluting the act," one of the Commissioners present in the meeting said.

The move comes a day after the completion of four years of the transparency law which has given powers to citizen to seek information from government through very simple means.

Sources in the department said there was stiff opposition from some quarters of bureaucracy and polity regarding the freedom to seek any information and they had suggested clauses to curb the practice.

The issue of "frivolous" applications was also raised by President Pratibha Patil during her inaugural address of the fourth convention of the CIC on Tuesday.

However, various activists and political leaders suggested that there should not be any amendment to the Act as of now as only four years have passed since its enactment.

During a panel discussion at the convention, BJP leader Arun Jaitley has opposed the idea of amending the Act, saying more time should be given for it. The point was supported by Sitaram Yechury of CPI-M.

The other changes suggested by DOPT during the meeting on Wednesday were changes in the second schedule list of organisations which are exempted from disclosure under the RTI Act, legality of the benches constituted by Commissions and issue of NRI fee besides many other operational matters.

Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah had suggested bringing some organisations out of exempted list as matters of personnel management were also getting out of the ambit of the Act.

"These issues can be sorted out by simple executive orders but we feel that government has decided to dilute the act in the garb of amending it," said a Commissioner.