• Role of Civil Society in evolution of RTI Act 2005 -The Major Milestones!

                


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      Dr. Pathak
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      Published on 04-16-2011 11:44 AM  Number of Views: 1351  
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      Enactment of RTI ACT 2005 became the first recorded instance of participatory Law Making in India. In 1996 National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) prepared the first ever civil society draft of the right to information (RTI). NAC (National Advisory Council) was setup in 2004 as an interface between civil society and the government.



      Within 3 months of the 2004 elections, the NCPRI submitted its recommendations to the NAC on the RTI Draft Bill, which in turu endorsed most of them. However, the Government RTI bill had a departure that its jurisdiction was limited to the Centre as the states were exempted from its ambit. After Civil Society and NAC intervention the deficiencies were rectified in the RTI Bill and was passed by both the houses of parliament in May 2005.

      The major deviation from the draft bill was the penal clause which imposed a liability of imprisonment up to five years if the public information officer had knowingly given false information or denied information in a mala fide manner. The final RTI Act does not have this clause.



      The next milestone was the prevention of amendment of the RTI Act 2005 a year later which presumably sought to dilute the provision such as 'File Notings'. The amendment proposed was limiting the file noting to only development and social issues. The protest by the civil society and RTI Activist on August 2006 by Aruna Roy and others at Jantar Mantar while Anna hazare went on an indefinite fast in his Maharashtra village, finally halted the amendment.



      Another milestone event in RTI has been the Last Year CIC decision that public authorities should publish "all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public" on Section 4 (1)(c) of the RTI Act. The RTI Activist asked CIC whether Section 4 (1)(c) could be extended to Pre-Legislative consultation? In response, the full bench of CIC recommended that a 2002 circular on the procedure for preparing and submitting cabinet notes on legislative proposals be amended to bring it in tune with the RTI Clause. However, the public consultation on draft bills is still left to be implemented.
      • Will 'Public Consultation on draft bills of Government' change the very nature of formulating the bills and in turn decision making?
      • Can you site any other major milestones in the evolution of RTI Act? Please feel free to drop in your comments.


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      This article was originally published in blog: Role of Civil Society in evolution of RTI Act 2005 -The Major Milestones! started by K. Pathak
      1. Categories:
      2. Act,
      3. RTI Education
      Comments 1 Comment
      1. Ravi Maheshwari's Avatar
        Ravi Maheshwari - 04-16-2011, 06:32 PM
        It would certainly make change to some extent, but I do not think it would make change to a large extent because of lack of participation of adequate number of people when compared to population. First of all, we have to have a mechanism to make people aware of what is going on and what is likely to go on. We do not have a mechanism to reach each and every corner of small towns, forget about villages. Still we see reports of starvation; it is obvious that the technology and infrastructural facilities may not have reached. Unless, we become literate and get equipped with foolproof mechanism to make people aware, it is very difficult to expect that public consultation on draft bills would make much change. In the recent days, we have seen that benefit goes to those states/areas, whose leaders have stronghold in the corridors of the power. In the same manner, the people of literate state/area would definitely be interested and worried to see that some benefit reaches them; and in this run, they will vigorously participate in the formulation of draft bills; and on the contrary, the people of illiterate state/area, having been unaware of what is going on, may not be in a position to participate in the process of drafting bills. There is likelihood of unequal treatment. The priority, therefore, should be to educate people and to get them equipped with the technology.

        Other milestones in the evolution of RTI : We have seen few Ministers stepping down due to exposures of few scams, such as Adarsh, 2G. In the past, there may be cases where the Ministers might have been charged under criminal laws, but I do not think any of those had stepped down before final outcome of the case, whereas, after enactment of RTI, we have seen Ministers stepping down.

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