The RTI Act has a long way to go

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SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL

15 June, 2009

Four years since the completion of the RTI Act, the Department of Personnel & Training has failed to take effective steps to popularise the Act as is mandatory under Section 26 of the RTI Act.

ON THE occasion of the completion of four years of the Right To Information Act (RTI Act), the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has rightly pointed out the failure of the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) in taking effective steps to popularise the Act, which is mandatory under Section 26 of the RTI Act.

In fact, it is the nodal government functionary, DoPT, which handles matters relating to the RTI Act, which is the biggest hurdle in the implementation of the Act. Also by not modifying its website as per repeated directions from the CIC, and willfully defying various verdicts of the Central Information Commission (CIC) on issues like ‘file-notings’, the DoPT continues to confuse users of the RTI Act. In fact, the nodal-functionary has even sought a stay order from the Court on proceedings of the Commission.

It is beyond comprehension why the DoPT did not approach the court if it differed with the CIC on the issue. It is significant to note that the Union Government defined ‘file-notings’ to be ‘information’ under the RTI Act in its present form. At one time the governement had attempted to introduce an amendment to the RTI Act 2005 to exclude ‘file-notings’ from RTI Act, a move later withdrawn after strong resistance from users of the RTI Act.

Only recently, the DoPT created untimely chaos by putting a DoPT letter No 1/1/2009-IR dated May 22, 2009, on its website which declared that the holding of constitution benches by the chief information commissioner was unlawful. The DoPT should take stringent action against its irresponsible officers who did not take cognisance of the alleged lapse in introduction of RTI Act in the country.