RTI is ‘RIGHT TO KNOW INFORMATION’ act 2005. RTI is the fundamental right under the constitution of India. This right to information act officially came into 2005. Information is necessary to form and express opinions and support on any matter. It is therefore part of Article 19 (1) (a). It is the request for information (which is supposed to be public knowledge) that any Indian citizen can make from the offices & departments of the state or central governments in a timely manner.
Before this act, the discloser of the information was restricted by the official secret act & other special Laws. After the advent of RTI act, it relaxed many such Laws. This empowers the Indian citizen to ask any questions like why a particular work or official proceeding gets late. And it is public authority liability to response in 30 days or 45 days in exceptional cases from the date of receiving such an application. However the information sought must not be related to defense, National security & personal details.
Mainly this act, acts in achieving a corruption free India. This act equipped Indian citizens to keep needed vigil on the instruments of governance that makes government more accountable to be governed.
Guidelines to apply for RTI:
It is a simple process and can be done either offline or online. And in present time (2022) under the Modi’s governance mostly work is online: You go through https://rtionline.gov.in/index.php in order to request any sought of information u/s 2(f) :of information u/s 2(f) :
- To take notes/extracts/copy of Documents or records
- To inspect works, Documents, Records
- To take certified samples of material
- To obtain information in any mode
- What kind of information can be denied?
- Any information which will affect the trade secret of intellectual right of the person.
- Any sensitive information of the Foreign Government.
- Information which is restricted by court
- Information which will affect the peace, integrity, economic interest, relation with foreign states,
Now I come to the point; RTI is the most empowering act as of now. Information commission is the independent body with fixed tenure & fixed salary. Central Information commission/state commission has a duty to receive complaint from any person.
And an amendment took place in July 2019, where Central government will decide the tenure & salary of Information commissioner. This will definitely impact the RTI, as information commissioner won’t be fully independent.
And what if information commissioners are not Independent?
How, the best example for this is our police. If ever a police officer takes action against a politician, then he is transferred because the politician has a power to do so.
From 2015-2019, RTI was the truth seeker. Because of RTI wee got to know about 2G scam, common wealth scam, and how much currency came back into the banks post demonetization. Many cases pending in court, one of most debatable case: Modi’s degree case, which is still pending in the court because DU refuses to provide information about Modi’s degree even after asked by the information commission.
'WHEN THE GOVERNMENT FEARS THE PEOPLE, THERE IS LIBERTY BUT WHEN PEOPLE FEAR THE GOVERNMENT, IT IS TYRANNY'.
