Applicants of RTI under the shade of law

Introduction:

Talking about our nation India, which is a very diverse country as well as having the largest
democracy in the world. People are secured through various laws present in our country. Being a
democratic country where people have the right to elect their own representative who works for
the welfare of the state or the country as a whole. All this credit goes to the founding fathers of our
Indian constitution who have created a model of governance for the independent India which is
our constitution and yes, we have been given the various rights, various laws and the various acts
to the people of the nation to not get being exploited in any of the sense as each and everybody are
equal in the eyes of law.

As we have a democratic society so there are various laws or we can say ideas which comes in the
society and thus those ideas are experimented and also gets rejected if they found insignificant for
the welfare of the people. As this process is done because the constitution provides this thing that
nobody should be exploited in the eyes of law, therefore if any of the law or idea is not suiting to
the people of the society then that thing or idea is going to be eliminated.

The democracy requires the full transparency in any of the subject or the information any the active
participation of each and every member of the society in the decision making process as well. As
the government is formed by the common people only and they have the full right to know each
and every detail of the candidates chosen by them.

As, I have said earlier that this whole credit goes to the makers of the constitution who have given
the freedom to the citizens but with certain restriction with them which is not against the law. But
along with certain rights there are restrictions.

So, if we are talking about the various rights of the citizen then I would like throw some light on
one of our fundamental right or basic right which every person must have.

 Right to Information is one of our fundamental right the person should have, which
basically means that it is the right that the person have in order to get any kind of the
information he wants from government sources. The urge to know is one of the basic
 essentials of the human which not only helps in its very being but also helps him in its
development.

In our opinion this is the correct thing because if a person wants to know or to take any of the
information related to him in which he is involved, we don’t think that he/she is violating any of
the law because apart from the law or the constitution a very basic thing that the person is expecting
to take the person should not feel any urge in providing any of the information which is viable to
the law. As by providing any of the information to the person the person is not only getting
information but also the information is helping in its development not only the development of the
people but it is the development of the society as a whole.

The people should get to know about various things due to this as our culture is growing day by
day socially as well as technologically because as they have a knowledge of everything which help
in the rapid increase of our society. Yes, we know this is not only the point by which our society
will have a growth but it is one of the point through which people get aware of various things and
yes, informed as well.

It is the right of the public to request for the access of the information and it is duty of the officials
to meet the request as well as the private bodies have to follow the same criteria not only the
government. Also, it is the duty for them to provide the basic information even if the people have
not asked.

The government should make this a legislation and make a specific content of the right so that the
various people should get to know that which kind of information is accessed from where, when
and how. The different officials has to be assigned by the government for this job only for
providing the necessary information to the people.

By this we are not saying of providing any kind of information people have been asking but only
those information which are reasonable in the eyes of law, and government officials must have the
right to legitimately refuse them if the people are going beyond that necessary thing. By this we
have cleared our concept on right to information that what basically RTI is in our society.

 Now, we should talk about on the basis of our constitution that what it provides the people
related to RTI, as this was only our view on this thing now what actually government says
on this.
Since 2005, when the Right to information has come it becomes the hallmark of the democracy as
it allows the people to seek information and keeps the secrecy of anything as an exception.
Providing this in the legislation is the first step in this whole process in making this operational.
Effective implementation of this requires the genuine commitment from the government in all the
levels. Also we feel that it not only helps in gaining the knowledge of the people but also helps in
eradicating the corruption from the society as this right aims at making the functioning of
government a transparent, accountable and more effective which in turn is also a part of the
development of our society and nation as well.

Recent controversies including the 2G spectrum scam, financial irregularities in organization of

Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Housing Society scandal besides others have brought dark
truth of corruption in governance to the fore. The prevalence of corruption in India can be gauged
from the Centre for Media Services analysis that during 2005-10, corruption coverage in prime-
time bulletins in ceased almost by four times in comparison to news stories. 1

India's rank fell from 87th to 95th position in Transparency International's 2011 ranking of nations
in corruption perceptions.2

The use of RTI Act by media and civil society organizations in exposing several of the latest
corruption episodes3 underscores the fact that it is a great tool to ensure transparency and
accountability in governance.

Now, we would like to tell that why Right to Information should be granted as the fundamental
right rather than the statutory right.

According to the facts, the bill was passed in 2002 4regarding the RTI with the several changes in
it. At that time when this bill was passed in 2002, the people get to know to know about this thing

1
A Comparative Scenario: India Corruption Study, 2002-09, CMS India.

2
India Transparency International corruption index blow, BBC News India, December 1, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-15979646 .Accessed on April 12, 2012.

3
Mandakini Devasher Surie, Right to Information in India: An Effective Tool to Tackle Corruption, September 28,
2011, http://asiafoundation.org/in-asia/2011/09/28/right-to-information-in-india-an-effective-tool-to-tackle-
corruption/. Accessed on April 14, 2012.

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Right to Information by NV Paranjape.
slowly and then they considered it as the basic point, and the culture growing smart day by day as
many of the population when they get aware of this thing start participating in many of things like
governance. The bill would help bring about a full filling and meaningful participation of people
in various activities including governance also.

Our constitution also talks about the right which is in article 19 5which in clause 1 states that
freedom of speech and expression is the right of each and every citizen of our country and
according to us Right to Information comes under the freedom of expression as it means right to
express one’s own views and opinions freely by utterance, or in writing or through print, picture
or any other communicable mode. The term “expression” also connotes and therefore, freedom of
press is implicitly included in freedom of speech and expression under article (19).

It is a part of our life that each and everybody should have the information of the things in which
he/she is indulging in or whether he is indulged in it or not the government have the cure
responsibility to provide for the necessary information to its citizens for whatever things they are
doing as the government is only made by the people and they are doing things only for the welfare
of the people.

The basic principle involved in freedom of speech and expression and of the press is to strengthen
the people’s right to know and enable active participation of people in the governance of the
country so that the country could grow properly and soon we call it as the developed country
instead of the developing country and yes from the facts searched out of 200 countries only 20
countries have the freedom to information. We must say that the act should not become the ‘tool
of oppression’ and obstruct the national development and integration or to destroy peace,
tranquility and harmony among citizens. It is also observed that the nation cannot afford to have
the honest public officials bogged down with all and sundry request unrelated to corruption as it
will adversely affect the efficiency of the government agencies.

So, according to us India is country weeded to participatory democracy governed by rule of law
and therefore, the citizens have a right to know about the various matters which have a direct
bearing on their welfare and denial of people’s right to know would revert to know would revert
the country back to despotic and arbitrary rule, which we have suffered for more than two centuries

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Wikipedia the free encyclopedia.
under the British rule. Freedom of speech and expression and right to know are two essential
elements of liberty which cast an obligation upon the state to disclose legitimacy of its
administrative actions so that people may extend their active participation in the functioning of
democratic governance.

 Now, we would like to tell you all that what are the objectives or what RTI seeks to achieve
from its act for the general public:

a.) To preserve the paramountcy of democratic ideals and should have an informed
citizenry.6
b.) The questions must not be asked from the information seeker that why he/she is
asking for the information7.
c.) This act should provide maximum for the disclosure of all the information or any of
the documents having with the government authorities and except those which are
the sensitive information in view of the law.
d.) There should be an obligation on the government to disclose all the significant
information held by public authorities which are in public interest.
e.) It also helps in eliminating the corruption by promoting the culture of transparency,
openness and accountability.
f.) As this act seeks to establish the mechanism to facilitate access to information and
the documents.
g.) Also, it guard against the unreasonable demand of voluminous information being
made by unscrupulous information-seekers.
h.) The act seeks harmonization of the conflicting interests of the public authorities a s
well as the private ones.

We would like to discuss the facts of the case which we have cited above of Divakar S. Natarajan
vs. State information commissioner in which it was stated that by an application of 18.7.07 Shri

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Pg. 95, Right to information law in India by NV Paranjape.
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Divakar s. Natarajan v state information commissioner (writ petition no. 20182 of 2008)
Divakar S. Natarajan of Begum Pet, Hyderabad applied to the CPIO PMO seeking the following
information:

"Please provide me with all information, including files and noting’s, regarding action taken on
the matters petitioned vide my emails to Dr. Sanajaya Baru dated 5.12.2005 and Shri Muthu Kumar
PMOSB 25.7.05, 26.7.05, 31.7.05, 31.8.05 and five emails on 18.8.05."

To this he received a response dated 14.8.07 from Shri Kamal Dayani, as follows:

Shri Muthu Kumar8, OSD, PMO although arrangement had been made through videoconference
with Hyderabad and complainant Sh. Divakar S. Natarajan informed by Notice dated 16.4.2009
regarding the hearing, he has opted not to be present. Shri Amit Agrawal specifically submitted
that the Email addressed to Ms. Vini Mahajan, containing the first appeal remained untraced; hence
it had not been dealt with. To remedy any shortcomings in the receipt of RTI applications through
Internet, the Jt. Secretary, PMO has separately taken up the matter with the RTI Cell within the
PMO, which also consists of Shri Muthu Kumar, OSD, also present in the hearing, who monitors
the RTI correspondence on Internet.

So, here we have discussed a case related to the terms we want discussed in the objectives as well
as the main objectives of the Right to Information acts that what this act wants from our
constitution to make it as a fundamental right from the statutory right.

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http://indiankanoon.org/docfragment/1554916/?formInput=divakar%20s.natarajan%20.