RTI News

NEW DELHI: What's common between foggy movements of two army battalions, the government auditor's assessments of large notional losses to the exchequer and a letter from the army chief to the PM on his unit's preparedness for war?

The information in each of these instances in the past six months was marked 'secret' in official files, but screamed its way to the public, forcing the government into damage-control mode.

Information leaks in governments are nothing ...

Civil society pressure may have forced the government to keep proposed changes in the Right To Information (RTI) Act in abeyance but the information officers are quietly implementing them.

The government has proposed restrictions on RTI applications that only one issue can be raised in one application and it should not be more than 250 words. But, it had to withdraw amendments following objection by RTI proponents such as National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy.The Maharashtra government became the first state to introduce the proposed amendments silently through changes in the rules and some officers ...

Irked over "revengeful" litigation pursued by a man against his brother, the Delhi High Court today imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on him, holding that the information on filing sales tax returns, sought by him, were "private" in nature and cannot be spared under the transparency law.

"When we examine the present case, we come to an opinion that the information on filing of sales tax returns of a person are duly protected under the Right to Information Act and has rightly been not provided," a bench of Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said.

"The filing of the present appeal against the order of the single-judge bench of this court, which had upheld the order of the Central Information Commission (CIC), was abuse of the process of law. We impose a fine ofRs50,000 ...

In his white and grey uniform, big school bag, bespectacled Mobashshir Sarwar stands out in the bustling premises of the Delhi High Court. The XII standard student has a date with the judge, one of the many he has had since he took his school to court for expelling him in December.

At 17 and already a 100-odd RTIs old, Mobashshir is no ordinary rebel. He has taken on the administration for everything from bad rotis served at the hostel to how school fee is being misused at annual functions by seeking information using the RTI.

No wonder then that on a Monday morning when his classmates were concentrating on finishing a three-hour exam paper, Mobashshir, having turned in his answer sheet in 45 minutes, was waiting in queue at the Delhi ...

NEW DELHI: Now, you can file an RTI with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) sitting at home. What's more, you could also track its progress online.

Last week, the civic agency activated the RTI link on its website, making the RTI filing process less cumbersome. It also provided for online payment ...