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Introduction
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. But if there is an open government with means
of information available to public, there would be greater exposure of
the functioning of the government and it would help to assure the people
a better and more efficient administration". With the Right to
Information Act coming into force, it seems that the foresight of an
open government is going to be true. This paper intends to analyze the
implications of this landmark legislation on the masses and the
government as to how this law shall be helpful in good governance,
transparency and accountability in a country where maximizing of justice
is an urgent necessity.
The Right To
Information And Article 19 Of The Constitution:
This Right to Information (RTI) is basically a derivative of the Article
19 of the Constitution which deals with protection of certain rights
regarding freedom of speech etc. it says, "All the citizens shall have
the right to freedom of speech and expression." The idea is that if we
do not have information on how our Government and public institutions
function, we cannot express any informed opinion on it. To know this
right in a more better way, we should try to understand the freedom of
press. The freedom of the press is an essential element for a democracy
to function. The justification is that the democracy revolves round the
basic idea of citizens being at the centre of governance - rule of the
people. We need to define the importance of the concept of freedom of
the press from this fundamental premise. It is obvious that the main
reason for a free press is to ensure that citizens are informed. If this
is one of the main reasons for the primacy given to the freedom of the
press, it clearly flows from this that the citizens' right to know is
paramount. Also, since the government is run on behalf of the people,
they are the owners who have a right to be informed directly.
Justice Mathews ruled in the case of State of UP v. Raj Narain
said,
"In a government of responsibility like ours, where all the agents of
the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can be but few
secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public
act, everything that is done in a public way by their public
functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public
transaction in all its bearing. Their right to know, which is derived
from the concept of freedom of speech, though not absolute, is a factor
which should make one wary when secrecy is claimed for transactions
which can at any rate have no repercussion on public security".
Thus, the Right to Information Act is a codification of this important
fundamental right (Article 19) of citizens. The right has existed since
the time India became a republic, but was difficult to enforce without
going to court. The Act and its rules define a format for requisitioning
information, a time period within which information must be provided
within 30 days , method of giving the information and some exemptions .
All this information can be derived by accompanying such fee as may be
prescribed, to (a) the Central Public Information Officer or State
Public Information Officer, as the case may be, of the concerned public
authority; (b) the Central Assistant Public Information Officer or State
Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be, specifying the
particulars of the information sought by the person interested. The
principle is that charges should be minimum more as a token. They are
not at all representative of the costs that may be incurred. Citizens
can ask for information by getting Xerox copies of documents,
permissions, policies, and decisions. Inspection of files can also be
done and samples can be asked for. All administrative offices of public
authorities have to appoint `Public Information Officers (PIO).
Citizens can apply for information to the PIO of the office concerned.
If it is not provided or is refused, the citizen can go to an Appellate
Authority who would be an official in the same department, senior to the
PIO. If this too does not produce a satisfactory result, one can appeal
to the State or Central Information Commissioner, an independent
Constitutional Authority being established under the Act.
Penal Provisions
Under The Act
One of the major reasons for the success of the Maharashtra and Delhi
Right to Information Acts is that there is a provision for penalising
the PIO in case he does not give the information within the mandated
period. The National Act, which has drawn a lot of inspiration from the
Maharashtra Act, also provides for a penalty for delay on the PIO at a
rate of Rs.250 a day . There is also provision for disciplinary action
against recalcitrant PIOs in some cases . Thus the Right to Information
provides for a time bound and defined process for citizens to access
information about all actions taken by public authorities. The penal
provisions are the strength of the Act, which ensure that the PIO does
not treat citizens' demands for information in a cavalier manner. The
primary power of RTI is the fact it empowers individual citizens to
requisition information. Hence without necessarily forming pressure
groups or associations, it puts power directly into the hands of the foundation
of democracy - the citizens. There will certainly be an
attempt to subvert this revolutionary right by the ruling coterie, since
it strikes at the basics of their power. This can easily be countered if
enough citizens use the Act. Citizens can use the right from their own
houses and usually it does not take more than about two hours to make
an RTI application.
There is a great need to spread the usage of this countrywide, so that
transparency and good governance triumph. We now have the power; we only
need to use it. It is simple to use, and the benefits are immense.
Conclusion:
A law codifying people's right to know how their representatives and
servants in the government function on their behalf is certainly not
the ultimate in people's empowerment in a democracy, nor a panacea to
all their problems. Yet, it surely is a major step in that direction.
Access to information so far was confined to a privileged few in the
country. Someone dismissed as inconsequential can now invoke the law and
demonstrate that in a democracy no one is inconsequential and demand
from the self-proclaimed monarchs an account for money collected from
the citizens in taxes. If these monarchs hesitate to change their old
habits, the citizen can now invoke the stern intervention of the
judiciary in forcing them to submit to the law of the land. Full
credit goes to National Advisory Council under the chairmanship of the
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for
creating the right kind of political will that was a prerequisite for
such a paradigm shift and gifting the people a long awaited piece of
legislation on transparency when nine constituent states had already
ushered it in and at least four ? Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and
Karnataka ? had successfully implemented it.
After becoming operational across the country on October 12, this law
promises to be a single piece of legislation that can result in the
victory of participatory democracy. It is a right that has belonged to
us since our nation became a republic, and the citizens are expected to
make best use of it. It has been truly said that an open government is
clean government and a powerful safeguard against political and
administrative aberration and inefficiency.
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The author can be reached at :
ngg52@legalserviceindia.com |
The
Right To Information Act:
