Indian Polity Quiz: RTI and Good Governance Laws

The RTI Act received the assent of the President on 15 June 2005, and Section 1(3) provided that the remaining provisions would come into force on the one hundred and twentieth day of its enactment.

Section 7(1) of the RTI Act lays down two limits. The ordinary limit is thirty days from the receipt of the application, but where the information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person the Public Information Officer must supply it within forty-eight hours of the request.

Section 20(1) provides that where an Information Commission finds that a Public Information Officer has refused an application without reasonable cause, has not furnished information within the time specified, has given incorrect or misleading information or has destroyed information, it may impose a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees…

Section 22 states that the provisions of the RTI Act have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent in the Official Secrets Act, 1923, in any other law in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any other law.

The Act provides two appeals. Under Section 19(1) the first appeal is filed within thirty days of the reply or of the expiry of the time limit, and it goes to an officer senior in rank to the Public Information Officer within the same public authority, the First Appellate Authority.

That Act was passed in 2002 but was never notified, so it never came into force; the RTI Act, 2005 replaced it with a stronger scheme that added time limits, penalties and independent Information Commissions, and Section 31 of the new Act repealed it.

The Constitution nowhere uses the words right to information, but the Supreme Court has held that the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) is meaningless unless a citizen can know how the government works.

Section 12 of the RTI Act provides that the Central Information Commission shall consist of the Chief Information Commissioner and such number of Central Information Commissioners, not exceeding ten, as may be deemed necessary.

The Committee on Prevention of Corruption, chaired by K. Santhanam, reported in 1964, and the Central Vigilance Commission was created in the same year by a government resolution as the apex body for vigilance in the Union administration.

Under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 the Chairperson and members of the Lokpal are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a selection committee consisting of the Prime Minister as chairperson, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Chief…

Section 8(1) lists ten categories of information that a public authority is not obliged to disclose, among them information affecting the sovereignty and integrity of India, strategic and security interests, foreign relations, commercial confidence and trade secrets, information held in a fiduciary relationship, and personal information with no relation to…