{"id":258615,"date":"2023-09-04T20:47:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=258615"},"modified":"2023-09-04T20:47:37","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T15:17:37","slug":"status-of-the-right-to-information-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/status-of-the-right-to-information-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Status of the Right to Information Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cStatus of the Right to Information Act\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 4th September 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Governance<\/p>\n

Relevance- <\/strong>Right to information Act<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The article explains the undermining of the RTI Act by the government.<\/p>\n

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

The Right to Information Act of 2005<\/strong> facilitated citizens in acquiring information and data<\/strong> from both Central and State institutions that are not easily accessible<\/strong> to the public.<\/p>\n

This legislation enables any citizen to submit requests for accessing data, documents, and other information <\/strong>held by the government.<\/p>\n

India’s RTI Act has often been recognized as one of the most comprehensive laws<\/strong> worldwide for granting public access<\/strong> to official records.<\/p>\n

How amendments to the RTI Act have undermined it?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Right to Information Act includes an exemption<\/strong> that prohibits the government from disclosing the personal data of citizens,<\/strong> except when there is a compelling public interest<\/strong> to do so.<\/p>\n

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 202<\/strong>3 has modified this exemption from a qualified prohibition to an absolute prohibition. <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are concerns that powerful public officials can avoid accountability <\/strong>by invoking this blanket ban on disclosing personal information.<\/p>\n

Previous amendments<\/strong> to the RTI Act have also raised concerns. The Right to Information (Amendment) Act of 2019<\/strong> granted the Union Government unilateral authority<\/strong> to determine the duration of service and salary<\/strong> of information commissioners.<\/p>\n

How else is the RTI Act undermined?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The effectiveness of the RTI Act<\/strong> also depends on the subordinate rules<\/strong> established by both the Union Government and State Governments.<\/p>\n

For instance, payment methods <\/strong>accepted by a public authority are left to the discretion of individual states.<\/p>\n

Some states, like Tamil Nadu, don’t accept Indian Postal Orders (IPOs)<\/strong>. These are checks that can be purchased at post offices and attached to an application for payment.<\/p>\n

IPOs are typically the most accessible payment method. <\/strong>In contrast, other payment options <\/strong>can be less convenient or come with additional burdens.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, delayed appointments<\/strong> to information commissions have also eroded confidence <\/strong>in the RTI framework.<\/p>\n

Appeals <\/strong>can languish for months or even years before they are heard.<\/p>\n

What is the effectiveness of online portals for filing RTI applications?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Online filing of RTI applications <\/strong>represents a significant step in eliminating certain obstacles. Citizens can simply submit their requests online and make payments using UPI.<\/p>\n

However, several states do not have an online RTI portal. M<\/strong>any State Government agencies are often not registered<\/strong> on these portals.<\/p>\n

The Union Government’s RTI portal<\/strong> was launched in 2013. Numerous public authorities<\/strong> under the Union Government are listed on the portal. But, the process of submitting applications <\/strong>has become more cumbersome.<\/p>\n

Previously, having an account on the RTI Online portal allowed citizens to have their personal information pre-filled<\/strong> in each application by default.<\/p>\n

However, the option to create an account has now vanished. The site requires all users to manually input<\/strong> their details each time they file an application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cStatus of the Right to Information Act\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 4th September 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Governance Relevance- Right to information Act News– The article explains the undermining of the RTI Act by the government. What are some facts about the RTI Act? The Right to… Continue reading Status of the Right to Information Act<\/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-258615","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\/258615","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=258615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}