RTI Act: How is Government hitting it hard?

There is a systematic attempt to undermine institutions and consolidate powers at the Centre.
Vipin Pubby

Vipin Pubby

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The impact of diluting the RTI Act is now for everyone to see.

EXACTLY 15 years ago, the citizens of India were gifted a law which empowered them to seek information from government under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. It had provision for a fixed tenure and security of service for chief information commissioners and information commissioners.

It also had provision for action against government officers who did not part with the information sought.

rtiIt worked well for nearly a decade but with the advent of Narendra Modi government, it began to loosen its sheen.

The government, known for its dislike to share information or reply to questions, brought in an amendment to the law in July last year which has rendered it a toothless tiger with the government holding it on tight leash.

A couple of reports released last week by independent organisations working for transparency in public life, have pointed out that around one third of the information commissions in the country are headless and more than one fourth of the posts of information commissions across the country are lying vacant.

Also Read: How Modi Govt ignores ‘Unanswerable Questions’?

Two of the information commissions, in Jharkhand and Tripura, have become defunct because there are no information commissioners.

Nine states do not have chief information commissioners. Even the post of the chief information commissioners for central government is lying vacant. All this has slowed down the work of these commissions and it is the common people who are the sufferers.

The popularity of the RTI is reflected in the fact that 33 million applications were filed with various states commissions and the central information commission since its inception. Of these 90 per cent applicants did not go in appeal. This implies that they were satisfied with the response to their first application.

rtiIronically while the BJP extensively used the provision of RTI to extract information from the government and used it against it during the run up for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it began to discourage the use of RTI after it came to power.

Vacant posts were deliberately not filled in the states ruled by it which slowed down the working of the commissions.

The amendments to the Act brought in by the Modi governments last year has led to further slow down the process. The amended Act has modified sections 13 and 16 of the RTI Act.

Section 13 of the original Act set the term of Central Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners at five years (or until the age of 65, whichever is earlier). It has been replaced now with “for such term” as may be prescribed by the Central government.

Section 13 also says that salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the “Chief Information Commissioner shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner”, and those of an Information Commissioner “shall be the same as of the Election Commissioner”.

Also Read: ‘Act of God’ in ‘Ram Rajya’?

Through amendment now, the salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioners “shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government”.

Obviously the government has radically altered the character of the information commissions by controlling the tenure and acquiring the authority to fix salaries, allowances and other terms of service.

rtiNot just that, the amendments have specified that these terms shall be fixed by the central government for all the states and that even their appointments would be made by the central government.

The induction of this provision is an extension of several other measures taken by the government to strengthen the centre at the cost of the states.

The recent amendments to the Acts relating to agricultural sector, where also several powers have been taken away from the states, is part of Modi government’s steps against the principles of cooperative federalism.

The data showing a sharp increase in the number of vacancies and also a similar decline in the number of applications are not good indicators of a vibrant democracy. Like undermining other institutions like the Election Commission, the RBI, the CBI, Judiciary, media and even Parliament, the government has given a body blow to the RTI Act too and its implications are already becoming visible.

Also Read: Punjab, Punjabi and Punjab’s Universities — Where’s the fight?

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Vipin Pubby

Vipin Pubby

The author, a freelance journalist, is a former Resident Editor of Indian Express, Chandigarh, and reported on the political developments in Jammu and Kashmir, North-Eastern India, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab in his long, illustrious career.

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