Necessity of Right to Information in Today

RTI Act

The Right to Information Act, 2005 provided safeguards and was a powerful tool in exposing corruption and ensuring good governance. Right to Information is a tool that promotes transparency and accountability in the working of the Government and makes Indian democracy work for the people in real sense.

However, the current government is responsible for the slow death of the RTI Act. They proposed a bill seeking to amend and weaken the RTI Act, which had empowered crores of people in the country to fight corruption and hold the government accountable. Attempts to pass the RTI Amendment Bill failed in 2018 but were successful the following year, when Modi returned to power with a larger mandate. The amendment did away with the fixed, five-year tenure of information commissioners and increased the central government’s role in determining their salary and tenure, widening the scope for downgrading the autonomy of the commissions.

The BJP government claims to be fighting corruption. However, rather than reinforcing the information commissions that assist people in obtaining information from various government departments, the Centre is intent on weakening their authority.

When citizens submitted RTI appeals to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding demonetisation, they were denied information on various queries. The central bank invoked the law's exemption clause, which allows for withholding information if its disclosure would "prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the state, relations with foreign states, or lead to the incitement of an offense."

Recently, the BJP government not only exempted the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents, from the ambit of the RTI Act, but also refused to divulge information regarding the discussions leading to the decision. “An institution such as the CERT-In, whose actions or inaction is consequential for the status of cyber security and individual privacy in the country, must remain under the purview of the Act.”

Challenges

Since the locus standi rule does not apply to RTI cases and there is no need to provide reasons for requesting information, it has been observed that many petitioners misuse the RTI Act. This creates significant opportunities for frivolous information seekers to exploit the act for personal gain rather than for the public interest in disclosure.

The RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 vests unprecedented power with the center and significantly hampers the autonomy of Chief Information Commission.

There are problems with enforceability. The Act does not give adequate authority to the Information Commissions to enforce their decisions. Information commissions can give directions to public authorities to take the steps necessary to comply with the Act, but are not empowered to take any action if such directions are ignored.

Public awareness regarding their rights and duties under the RTI Act in India is notably low. This lack of awareness is primarily due to insufficient education and dissemination of information. The problem is particularly pronounced in rural areas and among disadvantaged communities, including women, and individuals from SC/ST/OBC backgrounds.

The Role of Media in the Right to Information

Traditionally, the media has been regarded as the Fourth Pillar of Democracy, essential for ensuring transparency, accountability, and the free flow of information. It plays a critical role in shaping public opinion, holding the government accountable, and fostering an informed citizenry. In the past, it gave a fair view of the working of various functions of the government.

However, recent developments suggest that this pillar is under significant strain. Social media platforms and news outlets being bribed by political parties, are often used to spread biased narratives, influencing public perception and swaying electoral outcomes. This manipulation of information undermines the very foundation of democratic debate and deliberation. A particularly concerning aspect of this trend is the susceptibility of older generation to these manipulations. Many in this demographic continue to rely on traditional news sources and may not be as adept at discerning credible information from misinformation. This makes them prime targets for propaganda and unverified news, leading to a skewed understanding of political realities and issues.

The erosion of the media’s role as a watchdog has serious implications for democracy. Without a robust, independent media, there is a significant risk of unchecked governmental power, corruption, and the erosion of civil liberties. Thus, Indian media is not a credible source for international matters, politics or any important event affected by the government.

The solution to this problem would be to switch to alternate international sources of information such as Reuters or BBC, as they might not be able to provide information on all the local grievances, but they would surely provide an unbiased opinion.

Solutions

To begin with, the government could take steps to reduce pending appeals. Under the RTI Act, when an applicant is denied information by a government department, the first appeal is made to the appellate authority in the department. If unresolved, the RTI applicant can move the office of the Central Information Commission (CIC)—for queries related to central government—or State Information Commission. Government data shows that pending appeals have been a consistent hurdle: in May 2014, when the BJP government came to power, close to 35,000 appeals were pending before the CIC. In June 2019, about 31,000 appeals were pending, over 9,000 of those pending for over a year. Currently, four out of the ten positions of information commissioners are vacant.

According to an RTI ratings report by the Canada-based Centre for Law and Democracy, India’s rank slipped from second position in 2011 to eighth in 2018. India remains one of the top-ranked nations but there are several problems with its access regime, the report said. It flagged blanket exemptions from the RTI to “security, intelligence, research and economic institutes” and “information held by private entities which perform a public function”. In its current form, Section 8 of the RTI Act lists ten exemptions, ranging from any information that may hurt national security, impede the process of ongoing investigations to cabinet papers and deliberations of the council of ministers. These exemptions must be clarified and sharpened and further extensions of these lists must be highly scrutinized.