Reconsider amendment to RTI Rules: Seshadri
As reported in
Deccan Herald, Shimoga, UNI: Saturday, May 10, 2008
Forum for Information Awareness Convener S Sheshadri on Saturday urged the Karnataka government to reconsider the recent amendment to Right to Information Rules 2005,as the same was clear violation of Right to Information (RTI) Act and it was 'anti-people, retrograde, disparage and illegitimate'.
In a letter to the President and the Prime Minister, copy of which was released to the press here, Mr Sheshadri said that the amendment has restricted the information sought for shall not exceed
150 words on one subject and separate application should be made for different subjects.
Earlier there was no such restriction on quantum of information and fees required to be paid.
Alleging that the bureaucracy in Karnataka has pushed through the amendment by way of executive order when there was no popular government in the state, he said that the
RTI has been enacted by Central Government which had never thought of bringing an amendment
of the sort to Central
RTI (Regulation of Fees and Costs) Rules 2005 which has been copied while enacting the Karnataka
RTI Rules 2005 as the amendment would be an affront to the very purpose and intent of the Act and Rules.
He said that the amendment was not only illegitimate or incestuous but also devoid of powers since Sec.29 of the
RTI Act Prescribes that every rule made under the Act by a the state government shall be laid as soon as may be after it notified before the state legislature. Therefore the Amendment should have been got approved by the Parliament since according to the Article 356(1)(b) of the Indian Constitution the 'powers of the Legislature of the
state shall be exercisable by or under authority of the Parliament'.
By the amendment bureaucracy in Karnataka has usurped the powers of the legislature and committed misconduct, he charged.