The gaps in the implementation of the RTI Act

RTI worker seen during National RTI Museum on the outskirts of Bewar, Rajasthan, hundreds gathered to celebrate and discuss the RTI movement | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

The Right to Information (RTI) Act completed 21 years today. Besides empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, a key aspect of the RTI Act is the provision for suo motu mandatory disclosure of a variety of information on their websites so that people do not have to resort to filing requests under the Act for accessing basic information regarding any department.

The RTI’s shift to a ‘right to deny information’

Section 4 (1) (b) of the Act lists 16 types of information, ranging from contact details of officials to budgetary expenditure, which are to be made public at regular intervals. Moreover, the Department of Personnel and Training has issued guidelines for the disclosure of additional information, under eight broad categories, including information related to procurement, public-private partnerships, and all RTI applications received by each department. An analysis, however, showed that such voluntary disclosure has not been followed.

With the number of official websites of the Union government and State governments running into the thousands, the scope of this analysis is restricted to the departments listed as Public Authorities (PAs) in the Government of India’s online portal for filing of applications under the RTI Act and the data presented in the annual reports of the Central Information Commission (CIC).