LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

LSM (193)

Term Paper of Business Environment

Topic- Right to information Act

Submitted to -: Submitted by-:

Mr. Vishwas chakranarayan Prashant Kumar Yadav

Roll no –RS1904B56

Regis. No. - 10907634

Course- M.B.A (Regular)

 RIGHT TO INFORMATION

ACT 2005

Table of Contents-:
 BACKGROUND
 INTRODUCTION
 DEFINITION
 OBJECTIVE / PURPOSE
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 ANALYSIS
 INFORMATION BY RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT
 R.T.I APPLIES AS STATE LEVEL
 PROCESS
 CONTROVECY ON RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT
 WHAT IS NOT OPEN TO DISCLOSURE
 ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
 IMPACT OF RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT
 NATIONAL R.T.I AWARDS-2009
 CONCLUSION
 RIGHT TO INFORMATION

ACT 2005

BACKGROUND:

"The Right to Information Act, 2005" was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 23rd December
2004. The bill was subsequently pased by the House on11th May 2005, after adopting certain
amendments. The bill was later passed by the Rajya Sabha on 12th May, 2005 and got the
President's assent on 15- 6- 2005, the Act would come into force on the one hundred and
twentieth day of its enactment. But it is active state wise.

Reference- www.wikipedia.com

INTRODUCTION:

The Right to Information Act, 2005 aims at providing 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. By this act every Indian have right to
get information in any organization and any government department.

Reference- www.wikipedia.com

Definition: Information
The Act defines information in sec. 2(f) as any material in any form, including the records,
documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, log books,
contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and
information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any
law for the time being in force.

Sec. 2(i) defines the word ‘record’ as including (a) any document, manuscript and file, (b) any
microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a document, (c) any reproduction of image or
images embodied in such microfilm and (d) any other material produced by a computer or any
other device.

The information under this Act includes any mode of information in any form of record,
document, e-mail, circular, press release samples, samples of electronic data, etc. The most
welcoming feature of this enactment is that the information can be obtained within a fixed time
frame of 30 days and if the information relates to life or personal liberty, then it can be obtain
within 48 hours. No such time frame provision has been made in any Act or code till this date.
There are certain limitations or exemption under section 8 of the Act which precludes the citizen
getting such information. Subject to the limitation narrated under section 8, every public
authority is under an obligation to provide the information on request both written and oral. The
Act made provisions for the Constitution of Central Information and State Information
Commissions for the respective States as the appellate authorities and for monitoring the proper
working of this Act.

The Act provides for appointment of Public Information Officers in each of the public
authorities at different levels. They are appointed by designation of their existing staff. Assistant
Public Information Officers are also similarly designated in every division and sub-division of
the administrative units.
The first step to be taken by the citizen seeking information is that he may send the
application for information to the Assistant Public Information Officers who will transmit it
within 5 days to the Public Information Officer. The application so transmitted shall be attended
to and disposed of by the Public Information Officer within 30 days of its receipt by him. Here
disposal of application means a real and substantial disposal. He should make available the full
information in the form it is requested. If the entire material is not available he must make
available so much of information as is available with him in the first instance and transmit within
5 days, the rest of the application to the concerned Public Information Officer for disposal who
should in his turn shall comply with the request within 30 days as originally fixed. If the
information is partly made available and the rest is rejected, the Information Officer shall state
the reasons thereof.
The next stage is that if the Public Information Officer refuses to make the information
either partly or fully or fails to respond or respond in an unsatisfactory manner, the applicant for
information may file an appeal before the officer higher in status over the Public Information
Officer. This appeal before the higher officer is called the First Appeal.
Second Appeal is the third stage. The authority to entertain the Second appeal is the
Central/State Information Commission. The powers of Information Commission are very
extensive. If the appeal is allowed the Commission may direct the Information Officer to furnish
the information in the manner asked for. If the Commission finds the Information Officer to be at
fault, the Commission may levy on him heavy penalties and may also direct initiation of
disciplinary proceedings against him to the original Appointing Authority. The mechanism thus
created for making the information available to the citizen is four-tired commencing from
Assistant Public Information Officer, above him, the Public Information Officer, then Senior
Officer who is the Appellate Officer and finally the Information Commission that is the Second
Appellate Authority. In addition to making the application for information, the Citizen has
another right to file a complaint to the Central/State Information Commission direct if the
services being provided under the above chain of officers are
found to be wanting in any respect. The Commission while disposing of the complaint may in
addition to granting the reliefs as applied for, may further issue General Orders for rectifying the
deficiencies in the system complained against by the citizens.
While that much is the procedure to be followed by the citizens in obtaining the information
from public authorities, the Central/State Commissions, which are independent statutory bodies,
have overall control over the whole system. The Commissions have power to supervise the work
of Information Officers and call from them the reports. The Commission will prepare an Annual
Statement of the work done, the number of applications for information received and the method
of their disposal. The Commission while submitting its own report containing the above
particulars to the Government may also include the action taken by the Commissions against
erring officers.
The Act is complete code in itself as it is having penalty clause. Section 20 of the Act
authorized the Central/States Information Commission to impose penalty of Rs.250 up to
Rs.25,000, on erring officials, by giving an opportunity to them. More so the commissions are
also authorized to recommend for disciplinary action against the erring public authorities as well
as for non-complying the provisions of the Act, under the service rules applicable to them.
However, Central Intelligence and Security agencies specified in the Second Schedule
like IB, RAW, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau,
Directorate of Enforcement, Narcotics Control Bureau, Aviation Research Centre, Special
Frontier Force, BSF, CRPF, ITBP, CISF, NSG, Assam Rifles, Special Service Bureau, Special
Branch (CID), Andaman and Nicobar, The Crime Branch-CID-CB, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and
Special Branch, Lakshadweep Police are excluded from disclosures. Agencies specified by the
State Governments through a Notification will also be excluded. The exclusion, however, is not
absolute and these organizations have an obligation to provide information pertaining to
allegations of corruption and human rights violations. Further, information relating to allegations
of human rights violation could be given but only with the approval of the Central or State
Information Commission.
Another anomaly that is noticeable is the omission in the statute that the rule making
power of the Competent Authority may be subject to the approval or ratification by the
Government. Here the power to make rules is vested in the Supreme Court, High Court, Speaker
or Chairman of the Parliament/Legislatures. While the rules made by the Government are subject
to the rule of laying them on the Table of Legislature, the rules made by the Competent
Authority are not required under this Act to be laid before the legislature nor are they made
subject to the supervisory control of the Central or State Governments or the legislature. It is
possible that the rules made by Competent Authorities may sometimes conflict with those of
others made by the Central or State Governments. Hence it is suggested that the rules that may
be made by the Competent Authority shall be subject to either prior permission or subsequent
ratification by the concerned Governments.
Another feature of this Act is that judicial intervention is prohibited i.e. the Court has no
power to entertain any suit or application or other proceedings in respect of any order made
under this Act. The Act provides for rule making power to both Central and State Governments
and such rules that were framed shall be laid before parliament in case of Central Govt. and State
Legislature in case of State Govt.

Reference- www.scribd.com

OBJECTIVE / PURPOSE:

The objective/purpose of the Right to Information Act 2005 are:

a) To promote transparency and accountability in the functioning of every public
authority.- By this act everyone get information about any subject and transparency arises. Due
to this corruption decreases in India.
b) To contain corruption and to hold Governments/Public authorities accountable
to the public.
c) To preserve confidentiality of sensitive information- by right to information act everyone
get good information it also help to media people who easily received the correct information.

Reference- www.wikipedia.com

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The RTI Laws were first successfully enacted by the state governments —Tamil Nadu
(1997), Goa (1997), Rajasthan (2000), Karnataka (2000), Delhi (2001), Maharashtra (2002),
Madhya Pradesh (2003), Assam (2002) and Jammu and Kashmir (2004).
The Maharashtra and Delhi State level enactments are considered to have been the most
widely used. The Delhi and J&K Right to Information Acts are still in force.
The first draft of the Right to Information Bill was presented to Parliament on 22 December
2004. After intense debate, more than a hundred amendments to the draft Bill were made
between December 2004 and 15 June 2005, when the bill finally passed. The Act came fully into
effect on 13 October 2005. The Act covers the whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir. It is
applicable to all constitutional authorities, including the executive, legislature and judiciary; any
institution or body established
or constituted by an act of Parliament or a state legislature. It is also defined in the Act that
bodies or authorities established or constituted by order or notification of appropriate
government including bodies "owned, controlled or substantially financed" by government, or
non-Government organizations "substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds" provided
by the government are also covered in the Act's ambit.

Reference- www.scribd.com

ANALYSIS:

An Act 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, the constitution of a
Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected
therewith or incidental thereto. The Act consists of six chapters and two schedules – preliminary,
right to information and obligations of public authorities, the central Information commission,
the state Information commission, powers and functions of the Information Commissions, appeal
and penalties, and Miscellaneous.

The Right to Information Act basically has two Parts-(a) Substantive law, and (b)
Procedural law. Section 3 could coupled with some other provisions like sections 8, 9, 18, 19 and
20 of the Act deal with substantive law while section 6 along with some other provisions like
section 7 of the Act deal with procedural law. Thus the Act is a completed Code in itself. The
core of the enactment is that the citizen can obtain such information he needed from public
authorities. It is the mandate of sections 3 and 4 of the Act to provide information to the citizens.

Reference- www.wikipedia.com

Information By Right to information act

The Act specifies that citizens have a right to:

  request any information (as defined).
 take copies of documents.
 inspect documents, works and records.
 take certified samples of materials of work.
 obtain information in form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in
any other electronic mode or through printouts.

Reference- www.rti.gov.com

R.T.I applies in State-level

The RTI is not applying in all states of India. It only applies in some states. The RTI Laws were
first successfully enacted by the state governments of — Tamil Nadu (1997)Goa (1997),
Rajasthan (2000), Karnataka (2000), Delhi (2001), Maharashtra (2002), Madhya Pradesh (2003),
Assam (2002) and Jammu and Kashmir (2004). The Maharashtra and Delhi State level
enactments are considered to have been the most widely used. The Delhi RTI Act is still in force.
$Jammu & Kashmir, has its own Right to Information Act of 2009, the successor to the repealed
J&K Right to Information Act, 2004 and its 2008 amendment.

Reference- www.rti.gov.com

Process

Under the Act, all authorities covered must appoint their Public Information Officer (PIO).
Any person may submit a request to the PIO for information in writing. It is the PIO's obligation
to provide information to citizens of India who request information under the Act. If the request
pertains to another public authority (in whole or part) it is the PIO's responsibility to
transfer/forward the concerned portions of the request to a PIO of the other within 5 days. In
addition, every public authority is required to designate Assistant Public Information Officers
(APIOs) to receive RTI requests and appeals for forwarding to the PIOs of their public authority.
The citizen making the request is not obliged to disclose any information except his name and
contact particulars.

The Act specifies time limits for replying to the request.

 If the request has been made to the PIO, the reply is to be given within 30 days of receipt.
 If the request has been made to an APIO, the reply is to be given within 35 days of
receipt.
 If the PIO transfers the request to another public authority (better concerned with the
information requested), the time allowed to reply is 30 days but computed from the day
after it is received by the PIO of the transferee authority.
 Information concerning corruption and Human Rights violations by scheduled Security
agencies (those listed in the Second Schedule to the Act) is to be provided within 45 days
but with the prior approval of the Central Information Commission.
 However, if life or liberty of any person is involved, the PIO is expected to reply within
48 hours.

Since the information is to be paid for, the reply of the PIO is necessarily limited to either
denying the request (in whole or part) and/or providing a computation of "further fees". The time
between the reply of the PIO and the time taken to deposit the further fees for information is
excluded from the time allowed.

If information is not provided within this period, it is treated as deemed refusal. Refusal with or
without reasons may be ground for appeal or complaint. Further, information not provided in the
times prescribed is to be provided free of charge.

For Central Departments as of 2006, there is a fee of Rs. 10 for filing the request, Rs. 2 per page
of information and Rs. 5 for each hour of inspection after the first hour. If the applicant is a
Below Poverty Card holder, then no fee shall apply. Such BPL Card holders have to provide a
copy of their BPL card along with their application to the Public Authority. States Government
and High Courts fix their own rules.
Reference- www.wikipedia.com

Controversy On Right to information Act

There is a raging controversy whether sub-section 7(3) of the Act permits the PIO to demand
unprescribed "further fees" from the applicants "representing the cost of providing the
information". A full Bench of the Central Information Commission is likely to hear the matter in
the second week of December 2008

Reference-: www.wikipedia.com

What is not open to disclosure?

In Right to Information act, some document we did not open with the help of this act. The
following is exempt from disclosure [Sec.8)]

 information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity
of India, the security, *strategic, scientific or economic" interests of the State, relation
with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence;
 information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or
tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;
 information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or
the State Legislature;
 information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the
disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the
competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such
information;
  information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent
authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such
information;
 information received in confidence from foreign Government;
 information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any
person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law
enforcement or security purposes;
 information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or
prosecution of offenders;
 cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries
and other officers;
 information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no
relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion
of the privacy of the individual (but it is also provided that the information which cannot
be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied by this exemption);

Notwithstanding any of the exemptions listed above, a public authority may allow access to information,
if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. (NB: This provision is
qualified by the proviso to sub-section 11(1) of the Act which exempts disclosure of "trade or
commercial secrets protected by law" under this clause when read along with 8(1)(d)))

Reference- www.rti.gov.com

Role of the government

Section 26 of the Act enjoins the central government, as also the state governments of the
Republic of India (excluding J&K), to initiate necessary steps to:

 Develop educational programmes for the public especially disadvantaged communities

on RTI.
  Encourage Public Authorities to participate in the development and organization of such
programmes.
 Promote timely dissemination of accurate information to the public.
 Train officers and develop training materials.
 Compile and disseminate a User Guide for the public in the respective official language.
 Publish names, designation postal addresses and contact details of PIOs and other
information such as notices regarding fees to be paid, remedies available in law if request
is rejected etc.

Reference- www.wikipedia.com

Impact of the Right To Information Act:

Now that the statute requires information about the pendency of the applications, reasons as to
why they are not disposed of or the reasons behind the rejection of an application, there is bound
to be improvement in the efficiency of the departments. Another important aspect is that in India
we have not given respect and prominence to the rights of the individual Citizen. True
democracy is impossible until we recognize the majesty of the individual Citizen. If individual
Citizens are empowered to ensure greater accountability and transparency in governance, it can
bring about a major change.
In the first year of National RTI, 42,876 (not yet official) applications for information were filed
to Central (ie.Federal) public authorities. Of these 878 were disputed at the final appellate stage -
the Central Information Commission at New Delhi. A few of these decisions have thereafter
been mired in further legal controversy in the various High Courts of India. The first stay order
against a final appellate decision of the Central Information Commission was granted on
3.May.2006 by the High Court of Delhi in WP(C)6833-35/2006 cited as "NDPL & Ors. versus
Central Information Commission & Ors". The Government of India's purported intention in 2006
to amend the RTI Act was postponed after public disquiet.
 The Right to Information Act: Turning it into an Effective Tool to Combat
Corruption in Governance

Following the recent global trend towards recognition of the right to information, the Delhi
government passed the Right to Information Act (RTIA) in 2001, which was subsequently
followed by eight other Indian states. It is poised to become a national Act in November 2005.
Under this Act, any citizen can approach the competent authority in a state department and seek
any information on the activities of that department and take copies of documents. If refused, the
official concerned is liable to be penalised. Despite this, the real picture continues to be different.
Corrupt government departments refuse to part with information, taking full advantage of the
common citizenry's lack of awareness regarding the Act. Delhi-based Ashoka Fellow Arvind
Kejriwal is using the RTIA to
tilt the balance in favour of the people. His idea is simple: create awareness among the people
and the state departments about the Act and then use it as a powerful tool to ensure transparency
and accountability in state machinery, which in turn will check corruption. How does he do it?
He uses three basic tools: public awareness, Delhi's Right to Information Act and a unique
platform called the Jan Sunwai (public hearing).

Reference- www.wikipedia.com
Reference- www.scribd.com

NATIONAL R.T.I AWARDS-2009-:

“NATIONAL R.T.I AWARDS-2009” organized by public cause research foundation and

NDTV here, Mr. Ansari said:” I must confess that I am pleasantly surprised at the manner
in which common citizens across the country have taken resource to the RTI Act to
address their unending efforts to secure justice. The RTI Act has become an
instrumentally in the hands of citizens to secure administrative facilitation and grievance
redress. ”
 The best RTI Citizen category award was given to social activist from Assam Akhil
Gogoi. While lalit narayan mishra from Etawah was presented the award for the best
public information officer, the Arunachal Pradesh information commission was awarded
in the best information commissioner category.

Reference- The Hindu newspaper

CONCLUSION:
This Act is designed to facilitate and further its end i.e., empowerment of public to know
what is going on under the guise of administration and should not be treated as an enactment
providing penalties and punishments.
Without any hesitation it can be said that this Act should be the voice of so called voiceless in
our society. Lastly, remind everybody that one should not be crazy about rights only and one
should also be mindful about ones duties. Rights and duties are the two sides of a coin.
In recent years, there has been an almost unstoppable global trend towards recognition of
the right to information by countries, intergovernmental organizations, civil society and the
people. The right to information has been recognized as a fundamental human right, which
upholds the inherent dignity of all human beings. Moreover, the Right to Information Act is for
the smooth functioning of the government by maintaining transparency between the government
working and the public who are the beneficiaries. In nutshell it can be said that this piece of
legislation is unique in many aspects. It entitled the citizen to know the details of governance
subject to certain limitations. It will further reduce the gap between the rulers and ruled.

Reference- www.scribd.com