{"id":252567,"date":"2023-07-18T20:54:31","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T15:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=252567"},"modified":"2023-08-31T12:12:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T06:42:16","slug":"a-bill-that-fences-in-the-right-to-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-bill-that-fences-in-the-right-to-information\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bill that fences in the right to information"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cA Bill that fences in the right to information\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 18th July 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 2 – Governance<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to Right to Information Act<\/p>\n

News-<\/strong> Union Cabinet has approved the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. It makes some changes to the Right to Information.<\/p>\n

What are some facts about the RTI Act?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Indian Right to Information Act has been in existence since 2005. It empowers citizens <\/strong>and recognises them as true rulers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was the result of efforts by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Its preamble states that democracy requires informed citizens and transparency in governance <\/strong>to hold government accountable and curb corruption. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It leads to an efficient government<\/strong> while preserving the ideals of democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those in power structure are threatened by this transfer of power<\/strong> to the ordinary citizen. Citizens have used this democratic instrument<\/strong> to expose wrongdoing and corruption.<\/p>\n

What is the basis of refusal of information by public authorities in the RTI Act?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ten categories of information<\/strong> have been exempted from disclosure to protect some legitimate interests<\/strong> and working of the government. These are outlined in Section 8(1)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The most widely misused exemption is Section 8(1)(j)<\/strong>. It exempts personal information which is not associated with public activity<\/strong>, or which harms the privacy of an individual. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It has a provision which states the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature, shall not be denied to any person.<\/p>\n

How Section 8(1)(j) has been misused by public authorities?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Many officials refuse information by claiming that it was personal information<\/strong>, and they would not give it. It has been used to cover arbitrary, corrupt or illegal acts<\/strong> of government officials.<\/p>\n

Some examples are denial of details of the beneficiaries of the Prime Minister\u2019s fund; bogus caste certificates, education certificates: verification of affidavits of elected representatives; unfair assessment of students and job seekers in government; file notings and minutes of meetings.<\/p>\n

How will the proposed Data Protection Bill have an impact on the RTI Act?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The proposed Data Protection Bill plans to amend RTI Act Section 8(1)(j)<\/strong>. It will exempt information under 8(1)(j)<\/strong>, which is related to personal information<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If this amendment is made, all information which can be related to a person could be legally denied. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Most information could be shown as being related to a person.<\/strong> Whenever a PIO wants to deny information, he will be able to link it to some person.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposed Bill defines the term \u2018person\u2019 very widely<\/strong>. It includes individuals, companies, and the state. Most information except budgets would be linked to one of these.<\/p>\n

Thus, the RTI would become a Right to Deny Information<\/strong>. It will be an ineffective tool.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cA Bill that fences in the right to information\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 18th July 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 – Governance Relevance– Issues related to Right to Information Act News- Union Cabinet has approved the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. It makes some changes to the… Continue reading A Bill that fences in the right to information<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[300,212,10498],"class_list":["post-252567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-governance","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}