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The Need For The Right To Information:
It has taken India 82 years to transition from an opaque system of
governance, legitimized by the colonial Official Secrets Act, to one
where citizens can demand the right to information. The recent enactment
of the Right to Information Act 2005 marks a significant shift for
Indian democracy, for the greater the access of citizens to information,
the greater will be the responsiveness of government to community
need...
RTI - A Real Step To Ensure Good Governance:
The date of 12th October, 2005 shall be remembered as a new era of
empowerment for the common man in India. With the passing of the Right
of Information Act on the aforesaid date, a faceless citizen is now
blessed with a tool with the help of which he can now demand from the
high and mighty in the government to know the details of every action
they take, professedly on behalf of the people. - "if secrecy were to be
observed in the functioning of government and the processes of
government were to be kept hidden from public scrutiny, it would tend to
promote and encourage oppression, corruption and misuse or abuse of
authority for it would be all shrouded in the veil of secrecy without
any public accountability....
Should Right To
Information Have Been Granted As A Fundamental Right?:
Since June 2005, when Right to Information Act, was
passed, it has been hailed as the hallmark of democracy for the reasons
that it purports to make, as regards government information, disclosure
the norm and secrecy as the exception. Experts feel that as the Act aims
at making the government transparent and more accountable, the effective
use of it would, in a long run, curb corruption...
Right to Information:
"If
you have knowledge, let others light their candles by it." This is
the philosophical underpinning of the freedom of movement. Freedom
of information and in particular, the right of access to
information held by public bodies, has attracted a substantial
amount of attention recently. In the past several years, many
countries have taken steps to enact legislation giving effect to
this....
Exemptions from disclosure of information under RTI: The Right to
Information Act, 2005 has been probably the most discussed law of the
recent times and also has given much more power to the people than any
other law. Its basic aim is "to provide for setting out the practical
regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to
information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote
transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority"...
Right to Information - An Anti-Corruption Tool:
Basically, this article talks about transparency including right to
information and also how it does work as an anti corruption tool. The
motive behind writing this article is to clear some of the concepts of
the readers as well as of the author herself. No democratic government
can survive without accountability and the basic postulate of
accountability is that the people should have information about the
functioning of government. It is only if people know how Government is
functioning that they can fulfill the role which democracy assigns to
them and make democracy a really effective participatory democracy....
Right To Know And Right To Information:
n India, the movement for the right to information has been as vibrant
in the hearts of marginalized people as it is in the pages of academic
journals and in the media. This is not surprising since food security,
shelter, environment, employment and other survival needs are
inextricably linked to the right to information. In the early-1990s, in
the course of the struggle of the rural poor in Rajasthan, the Mazdoor
Kisaan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) hit upon a novel way to demonstrate the
importance of information in an individual's life -- through public
hearings or Jan Sunwais. The MKSS's campaign demanded transparency of
official records, a social audit of government spending and a redressal
machinery for people who had not been given their due. The campaign
caught the imagination of a large cross-section of people, including
activists, civil servants and lawyers....
Right To Information - Tool In The Hand Of Public:
India got Independence in 1947 and proclaimed itself a Republic in 1950,
with a great Constitution. However, in practice, brown elite replaced
the white masters and Swaraj never came. Mahatma Gandhi had said, "Real
Swaraj will come not by the acquisition of authority by a few but by the
acquisition of capacity to resist authority when abused." A few did
acquire the authority and retained it, but the capacity to resist misuse
of authority eluded the average Citizen of India. Right to Information (RTI)
now empowers him to do that. The Right to Information is derived from
our fundamental right of expression under Article 19 of the Constitution
of India. If we do not have information on how our Government and Public
Institutions function, we cannot express any informed opinion on it.
This has been clearly stated by various Supreme Court judgments, since
1977. We accept that the freedom of the press is an essential element
for a democracy to function. It is worthwhile to understand the
underlying assumption in this well entrenched belief. Why is the freedom
of the media considered as one of the essential features for a
democracy? Democracy revolves around the basic idea of Citizens being at
the center of governance and rule of the people....
The Right to Information Act 2005:
Under the terms of the Act, any person may request information from a
"public authority" (a body of Government or instrumentality of State)
which is expected to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act
also requires every public authority to computerize their records for
wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of
information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for
information formally.
Right to information is more or less a universal
concept: n India, the Official Secrets Act 1923 was
enacted to protect the official secrets. The new information law intend
to disclose information, replacing the ‘culture of secrecy’ in
administration. It will promote public accountability which is a part of
governance. Where the accountability is exposed, the malpractice,
mismanagement, abuse of discretion, bribery etc are trimmed down. The
right to Know flows directly from the guarantee of free speech and
expression in Art 19(1)a of the Constitution of India. Yet, it requires
fair and efficient procedures to make the freedom of information
work....
Right To Information - A Tool For Good
Governance: Right to information is a fundamental right
and is a necessary condition for the existence of participatory
democracy. Under Article 19(1) of the Constitution every citizen has
freedom of speech and expression. The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights under Article 19, the Right to information is treated as human
right. The Act gives every individual the same powers as that of an
elected... representative.
Right to information as a procedural justice:
Access to information held by a public authority was not possible until
2005. Lack of information precluded a person to realize his socio
economic aspirations, because he had no basis to participate in the
debate or question the decision making process even if it was harming
him. Official Secret Act, 1923 acted as a remnant of colonial rule
shrouding everything in secrecy. The common did not have any legal right
to know about the public policies and expenditures. It was quite
ironical that people who voted the persons responsible for policy
formation to power and contributed towards the financing of huge costs
of public activities were denied access to the relevant information...
Setting out the practical regime of right to
information for citizen: The Right to Information Act,
2005 (RTI) is a law enacted by the Parliament of India "to provide for
setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens."
The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India, except the
State of Jammu and Kashmir - which is covered under a State-level law.
Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen (excluding the citizens
within J&K) may request information from a "public authority" (a body of
Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply
expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public
authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to
proactively publish certain categories of information so that the
citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally. This
law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force
on 13 October 2005. Information disclosure in India was hitherto
restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other special
laws, which the new RTI Act now relaxes....
Right to Information - An Overview:
India is a democratic country. The head of the country is elected by the
people of the country. The Government of the country possesses the
authority to work for the welfare of the country on behalf of the
people. The final decision making power regarding the welfare of the
country is in the hands of Government.
Freedom of Press: "A Free press
stands as one of the great interpreters between the Government and the
people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter over selves. ‘Freedom’
means absence of control, interference or restrictions. Hence, the
expression ‘Freedom of press’ means the right to print and publish
without any interference from the state or any other public authority.
But this, Freedom, like other freedoms, cannot be absolute but is
subject to well known exceptions acknowledge in the public interests,
which in India are enumerate in Article. 19 of the constitution.... |
Ghaziabad 
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