Dear members,
The Himachal Pradesh Government have framed rules under the
RTI Act, 2005. Rule 3 of these rules provides that separate applications shall be made in respect of each subject and in respect of each year to which the information relates. It means that if someone has to obtain information on a issue, which may extend to more than a year, then he has to file separate application for each year, even if the subject matter is the same and the Public Authority is same. Secondly if the person does not know exact year of the information and has only knowledge that the information relates to the last decade, then he has to file ten applications annexing application fee for each year.
I am of the view that this rule is against the spirit of the RTI Act, which imposes an obligation on the PA to disseminate the maximum information suo-motu at regular intervals, so that the public have minimum resort to the use of the Act (S.4(2)). I request the members to offer their useful suggestions as to how these rules can be agitated?