RTI Act 2005 and Good Governance Laws: Notes

Good governance means an administration that a citizen can see into, question and hold to account. India built it law by law: the Right to Information Act in 2005, the Central Vigilance Commission Act in 2003, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act in 2013 and the Whistle Blowers Protection Act in 2014. Of these the RTI Act is the one examiners return to every year, because it is short, numbered and full of dates and limits that can be asked as single-line questions. This note takes the RTI Act section by section and then places the other accountability laws beside it.

Why the right to information was needed

The Constitution does not use the words right to information. The Supreme Court read the right into Article 19(1)(a), the freedom of speech and expression, holding that a citizen cannot form or express an opinion about a government that keeps its working secret. The State of Uttar Pradesh v Raj Narain case of 1975 and S. P. Gupta v Union of India of 1981 are the two judgments quoted for this. The first statute on the subject was the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, which was never brought into force and was repealed by the RTI Act. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission, set up in 2005, chose this subject for its very first report and called information the master key to good governance.

The RTI Act, 2005: the sections that are asked

The Act received the President's assent on 15 June 2005 and came into force fully on 12 October 2005, 120 days later; the obligations of record keeping and proactive disclosure applied at once. It extends to the whole of India.

Timelines, fees and appeals

• Thirty days for a normal reply by the Public Information Officer, counted from the receipt of the application.
• Forty-eight hours where the information concerns the life or liberty of a person.
• Thirty-five days when the application is given to an Assistant Public Information Officer, because five days are added for transmission.
• Forty days where a third party has to be heard under Section 11.
• First appeal to the officer senior to the Public Information Officer within thirty days of the reply, decided in thirty days, extendable to forty-five.
• Second appeal to the Central or State Information Commission within ninety days.
• No fee for applicants below the poverty line; free information if the reply misses the deadline.

Section 20 is a favourite: the Information Commission may impose a penalty of two hundred and fifty rupees for each day of delay, subject to a maximum of twenty-five thousand rupees, on a Public Information Officer who refuses an application without reason, delays it or destroys information.

Exemptions under Section 8

Ten clauses protect sovereignty and integrity, security and strategic interests, foreign relations, information forbidden by a court, breach of privilege of the legislature, commercial confidence and trade secrets, fiduciary relationships, information received in confidence from a foreign government, the safety of informers, and purely personal information with no public interest. Cabinet papers are exempt until the decision is taken and the matter is complete. Two safeguards matter: a public authority may still disclose if the public interest outweighs the harm, and information more than twenty years old must generally be given.

The Information Commissions

The Central Information Commission has a Chief Information Commissioner and not more than ten Information Commissioners, appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee of the Prime Minister as chairperson, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and one Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. A State Information Commission has a State Chief Information Commissioner and up to ten Commissioners, appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and one State Cabinet Minister. The RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 removed the fixed five-year term and the equivalence of salary with the Election Commission, and left the term and the service conditions to be prescribed by the Central Government. A Commissioner may be removed by the President on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity after a Supreme Court inquiry.

The other good governance laws

The Central Vigilance Commission, recommended by the Santhanam Committee, was created by an executive resolution in 1964 and given statutory status by the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003. It has a Central Vigilance Commissioner and not more than two Vigilance Commissioners, appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, for four years or till the age of sixty-five. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 created a Lokpal with a chairperson and not more than eight members, half of them judicial, and required Lokayuktas in the states. The Prime Minister is within its jurisdiction, but not for allegations touching international relations, external and internal security, public order, atomic energy and space. The Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014 protects a person who discloses corruption, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, amended in 2018, punishes bribery by and of public servants. Beside the statutes sit administrative tools: the Citizens' Charter, the Sevottam service delivery model, social audit under the employment guarantee law, e-governance portals for grievances, and Good Governance Day on 25 December.