Clarity on disposal of RTI applications

04/12/2019

India’s Right to Information Act, recognised the world over as one of the most robust sunshine laws, and has been mutilated. The RTI Amendment Bill, passed by Parliament, strikes at the heart of the law by undermining the institution of information commissions. It was surreptitiously introduced by this government and pushed through both houses in the face of strong resistance from citizens and several opposition parties. The RTI Act provides a practical regime for ensuring peoples’ right to information, which has been upheld by the Supreme Court in several judgments as a fundamental right, flowing from Article 19 and Article 21 of the Constitution. Information commissions, under the RTI law, decide appeals and complaints of persons unable to secure information as per the provisions of the legislation. Information commissioners had security of tenure and high status under the RTI Act, 2005, which empowered them to carry out their functions autonomously and direct even the highest offices of the land to disclose information. The commissioners had a fixed tenure of five years (subject to retirement at 65 years), and the salaries, allowances and other terms of service for commissioners of the Central Information Commission and chiefs of the state information commissions were on par with election commissioners. The salary of an election commissioner equals that of a Supreme Court judge, which is decided by Parliament. The recent amendments, which empower the central government to determine the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all information commissioners, erode the autonomy of the commissions, and will effectively convert them into the proverbial caged parrots’. Every year, nearly six million applications are filed by citizens across the country, making the Indian RTI law the most extensively used transparency legislation in the world. People have successfully used the law to access information about their basic rights and to expose corruption and abuse of power. With no evidence to suggest that the law in its original form hindered its implementation in any way, the amendments are inexplicable.
Now the all second appeals and complaints pending with the Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission under the erstwhile State’s Right to Information (RTI) Act will be dealt with by the Central Information Commission (CIC). The move comes as Jammu and Kashmir State was divided into two Union Territories-Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh with effect from October 31, 2019. A large number of applications and appeals filed under the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009, would have been pending on the date of bifurcation. Since the two new UTs were formed, citizens and transparency activists have been approaching RTI advocates and officials concerned seeking clarity on disposal of their applications, and first appeals pending before various public authorities and the second appeals and complaints pending before the State Information Commission. The transparency watchdog was asked to examine these steps and offer its comments including suitable nomenclature of officers responsible for dealing with the RTI applications besides resolution of first appeals, second appeals and complaints pending there. The Jammu and Kashmir General Administration Department on October 29, 2019, formed a five-member committee to examine issues related to the State RTI Act. It will spell out the actions required to be taken like re-designation of Public Information Officers under the JK RTI Act.

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