Right To Information Act

by Ashish Kumar Singh & Margarita Denisnova Minaeva The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by both the houses of parliament in July 2019. The opposition parties had been arguing against the proposed changes in the Right to Information Act of 2005 through this amendment. The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act, 2005) came in existence after a long movement against transparency and accountability in governance.[Read More...]

Privacy continues to be the most frequent excuse for stonewalling the information questions. In Maharashtra, the State Information Commissioner (SIC) directed the public authority to give information to an applicant about the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) report. While the government approached the High Court to reverse the SIC order, the applicant wanted the High Court through a separate writ petition to[Read More...]

A Government Order (GO) is an administrative decision of the government regarding a policy, programme or official activity. The Right to Information Act 005 under Section 4 mandates governments to maintain all their records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under the Act and facilitate access to such records. Public[Read More...]

Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act made it an inescapable duty of every public authority to furnish 17 categories of information on their own, without anybody seeking it. The illegal circular  of Telangana govt that no information could be given without permission of principal secretary is illegal; it  needs to be withdrawn immediately, as it seriously undermines the transparency and[Read More...]

The outrageous murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Mr Ranjan Kumar Das signals new waves of authoritarian ruling class onslaught on democratic movements in Odisha. The state government has failed to protect the lives of RTI activists. Ranjan was murdered near his village Beruan in the Kendrapara district of Odisha on 31st January 2020. Like his friends, family, fellow[Read More...]

“The right to know is the right to live”- Boldly stated by Indian activist Aruna Roy, entices the mind to ponder upon a very fundamental thought that one cannot change what one is not aware of, but, once we are aware, we cannot help but change. India is the largest democracy in the world. A form of Governance, where it[Read More...]

RTI Act is supposed to be the most influential of Acts because unlike other Acts, this is one which is implemented by the people. Thus, this act is a true representation of the democracy. But in the current context of the country, is it really able to represent the different factions and bring out the much-needed transparency? In order to[Read More...]

Co-Written by Achintya Anita Gurumurthy and Nakul Patwardhan This month marks fifteen years since the Right to Information (RTI) Act came into force. Born out of people’s movements for accountability, the RTI legislation acts as an important cornerstone in institutionalising the everyday practices of participatory democracy. By establishing the institutional mechanisms to ensure systemic transparency, the RTI is an important[Read More...]