Times of India: Aurangabad: Sunday,
April 09, 2017.
An enabling
provision in the Right To Information (RTI) Act 2005 to deal with
non-compliance of orders and directives of the Central Information Commission
(CIC) and posting of non-compliance cases involving public interest before
larger benches of the CIC.
These are
some of the major changes proposed in the transparency legislation by the
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). The DoPT published the draft rules
on its website on March 31, inviting views and suggestions latest by April 15
through email only.
The proposed
changes have evoked mixed reactions from the RTI community, who have objected
to certain problematic aspects of the draft rules. They have opposed the
allowing for the withdrawal and abatement of appeals and mandatory requirement
of an RTI application in complaint cases.
Venkatesh
Nayak, programme coordinator with Access to Information Programme of the
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said while 60-65% of the draft RTI rules
are a repeat of the content of the 2012 rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation
as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the
transparency legislation.
"Provisions
for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the CIC by
public authorities were missing in the RTI rules. Non-compliance is
increasingly becoming a major problem," he said, hailing another enabling
provision that non-compliance cases involving public interest could be referred
before larger benches of the CIC.
Evolving
procedure for filing complaints under Section 18(1) of the RTI Act and making
it mandatory for the public authority to serve an advance copy of its counter
to an appeal or complaint on the appellant/complainant are some positives of
the draft rules, Nayak said.
Shedding
light on some of the objectionable rules proposed, RTI experts said allowing
for the withdrawal and abatement of appeals was undesirable.
The draft
rule to this effect reads 'the Commission (CIC) may in its discretion allow a
prayer for withdrawal of an appeal if such a prayer is made by the appellant on
an application made in writing duly signed or during hearing. However, no such
prayer may be entertained by the Commission after the matter has been finally
heard or a decision or order has been pronounced by the Commission.. The
proceedings pending before the Commission shall abate on the death of the
appellant.
Former
central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said draft DoPT rules need to
have more clarity about what a public information officer (PIO) should do when
the application is over 500 words. "No application shall be rejected only
on the ground that it contains more than 500 words. There should be clarity on
what a PIO should do when the application is over 500 words. Perhaps, PIO can
read the first 500 words and respond," he said.
A draft rule
to this effect states that an application shall ordinarily not contain more
than 500 words, excluding annexures, containing address of the Central Public
Information Officer and that of the applicant.
Gandhi added
that the draft rules should have provision for facilitating digital payment in
line with the government objective of cashless economy. "The draft rules
talks about digital payment if facility for receiving fees through electronic
means is available. This should not be the case and all public authorities must
accept digital payment," he said.
The proposed
mandatory requirement of an RTI application in complaint cases too has not gone
down well with experts. Despite providing separate procedures for submitting
appeals and complaints, the draft rules do not seem to have understood the
difference between these two remedies, Nayak said.
Among other
provisions, no time limit for serving notice of hearings on appellants and complainants
has received criticism. While the draft rules introduce time limit that
complainants must observe for filing complaints, there are no time limits for
ensuring that notice of a hearing in an appeal or complaint reaches the citizen
well in advance.
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