RTI Awareness Key To Strengthening Governance, Emphasises Information Commissioner Prakash Indalkar : Manish Gajbhiye

 FPJ: Pune: Wednesday, 8^th October 2025.
The State Information Commission’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar bench has organised the Right to Information week between October 5 and 12. State Information Commissioner Deputy Secretary Rajaram Sarode, Assistant Director Ganesh Funde and others were present

RTI Awareness Key To Strengthening Governance, Emphasises
Information Commissioner Prakash Indalkar | Sourced

“Citizens should utilise the Right to Information Act knowledgeably so that they can coordinate with the government effectively,” appealed information commissioner of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar bench of the State Information Commission Prakash Indalkar. He was speaking during a special programme organised on the occasion of the Right to Information Week here recently.
The State Information Commission’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar bench has organised the Right to Information week between October 5 and 12. State Information Commissioner Deputy Secretary Rajaram Sarode, Assistant Director Ganesh Funde and others were present.
Indulkar further said when he took charge as the information commissioner, there were 8,500 appeal applications pending, which has now reduced to 6,500. In the coming three months, planning has been made to reduce the number to zero. It is important that the required information should be provided to the applicant in the given time frame. If people get appropriate information, they develop confidence in the government. Hence, the Right to Information officer and the appellant officer should try to dispose of the application as soon as possible.
Sarode mentioned his experiences while implementing the Right to Information Act and informed about the Right to Information Week.
Deputy SP Gautam Pagare and ACP Vasundhara Borgaonkar informed about the implementation of the Right to Information Act in the police department.
Appellant officers Adv. Rajesh Shah, Jadhav, Chandrhar Yadav, and Devanand Khandare also expressed their views. Discussions on the problems and the measures were held during the programme.

No rules to act against judges who overstay in official bungalows : RTI

Times of India: New Delhi: Wednesday, 8^th October 2025.
There are no rules to act against judges who fail to vacate their official bungalow in time after retirement or on transfer, Delhi High Court has said in reply to a query made under the RTI Act.

The court's RTI cell declined to share details of judges who retained official govt bungalows in past few years, even after the end of the mandatory grace period.
Veteran RTI activist Subhash Chandra Aggarwal had approached the high court in Aug, seeking to know the rules governing retention of govt bungalows by judges after retirement, transfer, or promotion and the period for which they are allowed to stay rent-free.
The court said retention is permissible, "in case of retirement and in case of transfer/promotion up to a period of 30 days and 90 days respectively, and extension is permissible as per the applicable guidelines." But it refused to elaborate on what the applicable guidelines are in the matter.
Aggarwal's next query was on rules about action taken against those judges who do not vacate official residences even after the expiry of the grace period and if there is a provision to evict them for overstay. The response was a cryptic one-liner: "No such rules exist."
HC's RTI cell said, "information sought by you (Aggarwal) is exempted from disclosure in terms of Section 8(1)(b) and 8(1)(g) of the Right to Information Act, 2005." It further declined to reveal file notings on the matter.
Speaking to TOI, Aggarwal said he has appealed.
"It is beyond understanding how section 8(1)(b) could be invoked. I have argued that the RTI Act allows disclosure of even exempted information if the public's right to know serves a greater public interest than the harm to the protected interests," he said.

CIC: Headless and toothless - Vitasta Kaul

Frontline: New Delhi: Wednesday, 8^th October 2025.
Empty posts at the Centre and States have paralyzed the transparency watchdog, while the Personal Data Protection Act weakens citizen access.

A 2018 demonstration in Delhi against delayed appointment
 of information commissioners, outside the Central Information
 Commission Bhawan.
Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The Central Information Commission (CIC) is once again without a chief the seventh time in the past 11 years that the transparency watchdog has been left headless. Since the retirement of Chief Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya on September 14, 2025, the body has been functioning with just two commissioners; nine posts, including that of the chief, lie vacant.
The impact is already visible with 26,000 appeals and complaints pending. There are applicants who have been waiting for more than a year for their matters to be heard. Activists argue that such delays defeat the very purpose of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired), a transparency activist, told Frontline that the absence of a chief has brought the CIC to a standstill. “The chief is both adjudicator and administrator. The CIC is supposed to be the guardian of transparency for the people, for the law, not for the government. By not appointing anyone despite being fully aware of their retirement dates, the government is deliberately killing transparency,” he said. The RTI Act has no provision for an acting chief to head the CIC.
For Batra, the RTI Act is an important tool for citizens to participate in governance. “People have a right to know. We have to remember that the government owns nothing. These roads, this big infrastructure, these buildings they are all made with taxpayers’ money. They belong to the people. Even knowledge and information belong to the people. Passion for the country must mean passion to know about the country.”
Samariya was appointed Chief Information Commissioner on November 6, 2023, and retired upon reaching the age of 65. Before he took charge, the post had lain vacant for a month after Y.K. Singh’s retirement. Out of the 12 Chief Information Commissioners who have taken office since the RTI Act came into force in 2005, only 5 assumed charge the day after their predecessors retired. The first time the CIC was left without a chief was in August 2014 when Rajiv Mathur retired.
Although the dates of vacancies were known in advance every retirement being routine, with the incumbent either attaining the age of 65 or completing his/her tenure the government has repeatedly failed to fill the posts on time. This is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s 2019 judgment, which laid down clear directions to ensure vacancies are filled in a timely manner.
In Anjali Bhardwaj v. Union of India (2019), the court warned that vacancies would “badly affect the functioning of the Act, which may even amount to negating the very purpose for which this Act came into force”.
More recently, in October 2023, the court cautioned that the RTI Act risked becoming a “dead letter” if posts remained unfilled. This is not an isolated lapse. Vacancies have remained unfulfilled since November 2023. Despite advertisements being issued first in August 2024 for the eight Information Commissioner posts, and again in May 2025 for the chief’s position—the government has failed to complete the selection process. In January this year, the Centre told the Supreme Court that appointments would be made by April 2025.
On September 26, 2025, the Supreme Court heard a case on the non-appointment of information commissioners before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, arguing for the petitioners, noted that despite earlier directives, vacancies in the Central Information Commission remain unfilled. The commission has only two members, with over 26,800 appeals and complaints pending and hearings delayed by more than a year.
The court was also told that the Jharkhand State Information Commission has been defunct since May 2020, five years and four months. In January 2025, the court had directed the largest opposition party in the Vidhan Sabha to nominate one of its members to the selection committee for appointing a Chief and commissioners. The matter is listed next for October 27, 2025.
In response to an RTI petition filed by Batra in July 2025, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) confirmed that 83 applications had been received for the post of Chief Information Commissioner in response to the May advertisement. Earlier, in September 2024, another RTI petition revealed that 161 applications had been received after vacancies for Information Commissioners were advertised; yet, no appointments followed. “Since then, there has been more than a year’s delay, and the vacancies are still not filled,” Batra said.

Former CIC Heeralal Samariya
Photo Credit: THE HINDU ARCHIVES

The last round of appointments, in November 2023, was mired in controversy: they were made arbitrarily by a selection committee that excluded the Leader of the Opposition. Under the RTI Act, the selection committee must comprise the Prime Minister as chairperson, the Leader of the Opposition, and a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.
For Venkatesh Nayak, RTI activist and director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, the CIC remaining headless is part of a troubling pattern. It is, he said, “a clear indication of the lack of importance and primacy given to the implementation of the law. It is part of a general trend we have seen over the years wherein various institutions including statutory bodies and universities are let to languish for months without the vacancies being filled. This is most unfortunate because this government is certainly not short of staff to do this work.”
Nayak stressed that the issue reflects poorly on the Prime Minister himself, since the DoPT, which oversees appointments to the CIC, is part of his portfolio. “The Central Information Commission constitutes the oversight mechanism on transparent governance. And if such a body remains headless and without an adequate number of commissioners, then people’s grievances about lack of transparency or inadequate access to information in relation to their RTI applications will remain unaddressed for months together.” The pendency figures bear this out. “Today, the ordinary wait time is about 8 to 12 months or even longer before the commission,” Nayak noted. “There are more than 25,000 appeals and complaints pending. By the time information is disclosed, it often becomes obsolete.”
India has 28 State Information Commissions (SICs) and 1 CIC. The RTI Act mandates that each commission have 1 Chief Information Commissioner and up to 10 Information Commissioners, depending on the workload. The rot is not confined to the Centre the SICs across the country face the same neglect. “There are States like Jharkhand where there wasn’t a single commissioner as of last year,” Nayak pointed out, citing a study by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS).
“In Karnataka and Maharashtra, multiple commissioner posts remain vacant, leaving entire divisions without adjudication. Commissioners are supposed to be based in different parts of the State so that people can have better access to them. But when vacancies don’t get filled up, cases simply go unheard.”
According to the “Report Card of Information Commissions in India 2023-24”, compiled and published by the SNS in January 2025, seven Information Commissions were defunct for varying periods between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, in Jharkhand, Telangana, Goa, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. Four commissions in Jharkhand, Telangana, Tripura, and Goa remained defunct, while five were without a chief in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, and Odisha. As of June 30, 2024, more than four lakh appeals and complaints were pending across the 29 commissions.
The report also revealed another irony: although Section 25 of the RTI Act mandates that each commission shall prepare and publish an annual report on the implementation of the Act, 62 per cent of the commissions had not published their 2022-23 reports. “The transparency bodies do not publish data regarding RTIs, making it difficult to even understand the full scale of RTI use in the CIC and SICs,” Nayak observed.
Nayak also explained how the vacancies impact the performance of Information Commissions. Section 20 of the RTI Act empowers Information Commissions to impose fines of up to Rs.25,000 on erring Public Information Officers (PIO). With vacancies piling up, pendency stretches over a year, eroding the threat of penalties against non-compliant officials. “Because commissions have become so slow in disposing of cases, the threat of penalties simply disappears,” Nayak said. “A PIO who ignores an RTI application or refuses information knows his case may not be heard for over a year. By then, he’ll be transferred, and the commission will simply call whoever is in charge. The accountability aspect of RTI implementation vanishes into thin air.”
He added: “When commissions themselves are riddled with vacancies, PIOs know cases won’t come up for months. The seriousness with which they should respond disappears.”

A 2018 protest against proposed amendments
 in the RTI Act, in New Delhi. | Photo Credit:
THE HINDU ARCHIVES

According to the SNS report, commissions failed to impose penalties in 95 per cent of cases where they were applicable.
Legislative changes have further weakened the RTI regime. The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, passed in 2023, amended Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, replacing the earlier public-interest test for disclosure of personal information with a blanket exemption. Several civil rights and journalist bodies had warned that this change could hollow out the RTI Act and undermine press freedom.
The DPDP Act is intended to “provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognises both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process such personal data for lawful purposes”. But in doing so, it rewrites one of the most important provisions of the RTI Act.
Section 8(1)(j) earlier stated that personal information could only be withheld if it had no relationship to public interest or would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy, unless the larger public interest justified disclosure. This required PIOs to weigh competing claims of privacy and transparency.
Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act, however, reduced this safeguard to a single line: “information which relates to personal information”. By removing the balance test, the scope for denying information has dramatically widened. “This is hugely problematic, retrograde, and will reduce the efficacy of the RTI Act,” Nayak said. “Now it says any personal information about an individual cannot be disclosed. This destroys anti-corruption efforts and accountability-seeking under RTI.”
The amendment also deleted a critical provision that ensured parity between citizens and legislators: information that could not be denied to Parliament or State legislatures could not be denied to citizens. “That parity between citizens and elected representatives in terms of information access has simply been destroyed,” Nayak argued.
Additionally, the DPDP Act creates a new Data Protection Board, entirely government-appointed, to decide disputes over personal data. “The board will be the final arbiter on personal data issues. Since it is a later and special law, it could override the Information Commissions. The board will be entirely government-appointed, unlike the CIC, which at least involves the Leader of Opposition in appointments. This risks making the RTI Act subordinate to privacy concerns without safeguards for public interest,” Nayak warned.
Already, Nayak says, PIOs in some States have begun citing the DPDP Act to deny disclosures, even though its rules have not yet been notified. “The opacity is intensifying even before the law has been enforced,” he said. “The accountability-seeking aspect of the RTI Act will unfortunately be completely squashed by the implementation of DPDP.”
Wajahat Habibullah, the first Chief Information Commissioner who oversaw the RTI regime in its formative years, says the weakening of the CIC is as much about status as it is about vacancies. “The law has been watered down. The office of the commissioner has been made beholden to the government. Appointments as well as the powers exercised by the Chief Information Commissioner are no longer as free as they were originally guaranteed by the law,” he told Frontline.
Habibullah recalled that when he served as Chief Information Commissioner, the position was on par with the Chief Election Commissioner, well above Chief Cabinet Secretary and equivalent to a Supreme Court Justice. Today, he noted, the Chief Information Commissioner ranks no higher than a Cabinet Secretary, while Information Commissioners are equivalent to Secretaries of the government of India. “You can see how this affects the Commission’s position as defined by government legislation.”
He also highlighted the practical implications of vacancies. “If there is no Chief Information Commissioner, the key appointee, the rulings of the Information Commission are, in fact, invalid. The chief determines the administration of the commission and the distribution of work. Without that leadership, the law is virtually ineffective.”
Habibullah stressed that the challenges are long-standing but compounded by recent legislative changes. “Even earlier, shortages of commissioners led to huge backlogs. The commissions were intended as the last appellate authority under the RTI Act, ensuring quick disposal and binding decisions within the same infrastructure. That institution still exists, but its status has been somewhat lowered. If the commission had continued to function as a completely independent body, this might not have mattered. Whether it has functioned independently or not is for the public to judge.”
He added: “The RTI Act anticipated that suo motu disclosures would expand over time, just as the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court has widened over the years. Ideally, access to information should have grown. But now, the decisions of the Information Commissioners seem more focussed on protecting government positions and keeping information secure, rather than increasing transparency. This is something the commissions need to address.”

Gujarat Information Commission withdraws order recommending probe by CID Crime against trio : Written by Parimal A Dabhi

The Indian Express: Gandhinagar: Tuesday, 7^th October 2025.
The withdrawal of the order came about after one of the three persons challenged it before Gujarat High Court

The Commission had barred the three from filing RTI applications while instructing the state authorities not to consider any RTI application or appeal by them till they are exonerated of criminal charges.
Almost six months after it barred three men from filing RTI applications, noting that they had filed more than 2,700 second appeals, which was a “misuse” of the Act, the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has withdrawn its order. The Commission, in its April 5 order, had recommended the Gujarat government to initiate a CID probe into the allegations of criminal harassment of certain persons by the trio after getting information through RTI applications. They were barred from filing RTI applications till they were exonerated of the criminal charges.
The withdrawal of the order by the Commission came after one of the three persons challenged the same before Gujarat High Court.
Speaking with The Indian Express, Devang Vyas, lawyer of one of the three barred men, Jashvantsinh Brahmbhatt, said, “We challenged the order on the ground that it was beyond the scope of the RTI Act. There are no powers under RTI Act to pass such an order. RTI authority cannot give such directions. It is way beyond the powers entrusted under RTI Act.”
After the HC took a serious view of the order, the SIC made a statement before the court that the order will be withdrawn.
On September 26, the SIC passed a corrigendum order withdrawing its April 5 order. It is expected to pass another order on the appeal on merits.
Disposing Jashvantsinh’s petition, the single-judge bench of HC presided over by Justice Niral Mehta recorded, “…advocate for the respondent (State Information Commissioner) tendered the corrigendum order dated 26.9.2025, by which the earlier order dated 5.4.2025 has been ordered to be withdrawn. The corrigendum order dated 26.9.2025 is taken on record.”
Why was probe recommended?
Earlier this year, acting on a second appeal of an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act by Jashvantsinh, State Information Commissioner Nikhil Bhatt had passed the order barring the three men from filing any further applications under the Act.
Jashvantsinh’s RTI application was related to alleged unauthorised developments in Pandesara GIDC. During the hearing of the second appeal of the same, allegations of harassment, including blackmailing and extortion, through misuse of applications under RTI Act were made against Jashvantsinh, his brother Mahendra and nephew Harsh by Pandesara Industrial Cooperative Housing Society through an affidavit. During the hearing, references were also made to two FIRs of extortion registered against Jashvantsinh. Deciding the second appeal in its detailed order dated April 5, 2025, SIC Bhatt had noted that the three men had filed more than 2,700 second appeals, which was “misuse” of RTI Act.
The Commission had noted in the order that it deems fit to take legal action against the three by handing over the probe to CID Crime, Gujarat government. Eventually, the SIC recommended the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to give the probe against the Brahmbhatts to CID Crime under the provisions of Section 25(3)(g) of RTI Act. The section relates to monitoring and reporting of the Act by the State Information Commission under which it can make recommendations for reforms related to the Act. The Commission had also directed that after handing over the probe to CID Crime, its status report be sent to it every three months.
The Commission further recommended action, if found necessary in the probe, by Central agencies like “Enforcement Director, Income tax department” etc.
With that, the Commission had barred the three from filing RTI applications while instructing the state authorities not to consider any RTI application or appeal by them till they are exonerated of criminal charges.

RTI faces its toughest period as it completes 20 years : By Chetan Chauhan

 Hindustan Times: National: Tuesday, 7^th October 2025.
Close to 30,000 appeals are pending before the CIC and it now takes at least a year for an appeal to be heard for the first time.

October 12 marks 20 years of implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the only law that empowers citizens to access official information. The decadal anniversary comes at the time when the law is facing its worst existential challenges.
It is not only because of the amendment to the RTI Act through Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act that prohibits providing of “personal” information, the bigger danger is the governments’ seemingly non-serious approach in implementing the law in letter and spirit.
Close to 30,000 appeals are pending before the CIC and it now takes at least a year for an appeal to be heard for the first time. The average time for the appeal to be disposed of is two-three years, which was less than a year before 2014.

Gujarat could be 1st state where praiseworthy attempt being made to prepare list of those misusing RTI Act: Minister

Indian Express: Ahmedabad: Tuesday, 7^th October 2025.
The release also said the Surat police has succeeded in arresting 105 persons while registering more than 85 cases against people misusing RTI

According to an official release, Sanghavi made the remarks
while addressing a seminar on the subject of 'Roles &
Responsibilityof the Different Stakeholders' organised by
the Gujarat State Information Commission
(X/@sanghaviharsh)

MINISTER OF State for Home Harsh Sanghavi said on Monday that Gujarat could be the first state in India where a praiseworthy attempt is being made to prepare a list of people who are “misusing the Right to Information Act (RTI) in a year.”
According to an official release, Sanghavi made the remarks while addressing a seminar on the subject of ‘Roles & Responsibility of the Different Stakeholders’ organised by the Gujarat State Information Commission on the campus of the National Forensic Science University in Gandhinagar as part of RTI Week celebrations. Every year, RTI Week is celebrated from October 5-12.
The release quoted Sanghavi as saying, “Gujarat could be the first state in India where a praiseworthy attempt is being made to prepare a list of people who are misusing RTI in a year. The Gujarat Information Commission has done the work of prohibiting such agents who use the name of RTI. I congratulate the team of Gujarat Information Commission for this best work.”
Citing the minister, the release said, “When a legislation is promulgated, some citizens take disadvantage of the same and try to make it a means to earn income. Some RTI activists residing at a distance of 500-1000 km harass industrialists using the name of RTI. There is a network of such gangs in the country. To eliminate this network, the Gujarat government is doing leading work in coordination with all the departments.”
The release also said the Surat police has succeeded in arresting 105 persons while registering more than 85 cases against people misusing RTI. Whereas, in Ahmedabad around 12 cases were registered in just 15 days. It said that Gujarat police has started registering cases under Prevention of Antisocial Activities Act (PASA) as well against such criminals.
The release added, again quoting Sanghavi, that this Act has been framed in the interest of people and not in the interest of RTI agents.
As per the release, Chief Information Commissioner Subhash Soni also spoke on the occasion. He said that in the past five years, in around 500 cases, Public Information Officers have been fined more than Rs 42 lakh.
The seminar was also attended by information commissioners Subramaniam Iyer, Manoj Patel, Nikhil Bhatt, Vipul Raval and Bharat Ganatra, among others.

U’khand HC strikes down RTI panel’s order seeking DM’s inquiry

Times of India: Dehradun: Tuesday, 7^th October 2025.

Uttarakhand high court has ruled that a state information commission has no power under the Right to Information Act, 2005, to direct another officer to conduct an investigation into a complaint, setting aside a 2017 order issued by the state information commission to the district magistrate of Haridwar. A division bench of Justices Ravindra Maithani and Alok Mahra was hearing on an appeal against a single-judge order in Aug 2017.
The judge had upheld the state information commission's direction to the Haridwar district magistrate to investigate a complaint filed by the appellant and submit a report to the commission. The appellant challenged this, arguing that the commission acted beyond its jurisdiction under Section 18 of the RTI Act. The appellant said, "The commission is only empowered to examine delays or denials in providing information and to impose penalties under Section 20. It cannot direct any officer to conduct inquiries or furnish information."
This interpretation aligns with the Supreme Court's 2011 ruling in Chief Information Commissioner vs State of Manipur, which clarified that an information commission, when acting under Section 18, cannot direct disclosure of information or order investigations. The apex court held, "Sections 18 and 19 of the RTI Act serve different purposes and are not interchangeable."
The bench also took note of the state information commission's direction dated May 8, 2017 asking the Haridwar DM to conduct a probe and report findings to the chief education officer and other officials and held that it exceeded the scope of powers granted under the RTI Act. Both the state's counsel and the complainant's representative admitted in court that "the commission had no authority to issue such instructions."
The court concluded that the commission had overstepped its mandate, noting that Section 18 empowers it only to assess non-response or improper denial of information and, where necessary, levy penalties. It added, "Ordering a separate inquiry into the complaint lies outside the statutory framework." The order issued on May 8, 2017, was therefore set aside as legally unsustainable.

88K people bitten by dogs at Rohtak in 5 years: RTI reply

 Tribune India: Haryana: Monday, 6^th October 2025.
Information obtained through the Right to Information Act has revealed that as many as 88,666 people were bitten by dogs in Rohtak district in the past about five years.

Subhash, state convener of Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch, had sought information regarding cases of dog bite in Rohtak district from the State Public Information Officer-cum-Chief Medical Officer, Rohtak.
As per the information provided in response to the RTI application, 88,666 people were bitten by dogs in Rohtak district between April 1, 2020 and August 25, 2025.
Of them, 58,089 people were bitten by dogs in Rohtak city alone.
The aforesaid figures do not include the cases in which the victims of dog-bite preferred indigenous treatment/home remedies and did not report to any health facility for getting anti-rabies vaccine administered.
As per the official data, 9,560 cases of dog bite were reported at Sub-Divisional Hospital, Kalanaur; 7,161 cases at Sub-Divisional Hospital, Meham; and 7,666 at Community Health Centre, Sampla.
Apart from these, many cases were reported at community health centres and other government health facilities in the district located elsewhere.
The office of the SPIO did not provide any information regarding the compensation for dog-bite cases. The SPIO, however, maintained that treatment in government hospitals is free of cost.
In response to another question, the office of the Chief Medical Officer, Rohtak, stated that no deaths occurred due to dog bites.
During this five-and-a-half-year period, the Chief Medical Officer, Rohtak, received 13,080 injections from the warehouse and purchased 14,520 injections from the central store. That means a total of 27,600 injections were made available, while the total number of victims was 88,666.
As per local sources, non-availability of anti-rabies vaccine is often reported at Rohtak PGIMS.
Rohtak Municipal Corporation Commissioner Dr Anand Kumar Sharma maintained that the work order for animal birth control had been issued on June 24, following which the vaccination drive had started on July 21. "As many as 1,126 vaccinations have been done so far and the sterilisation work is in progress," he said, adding that the current tender had been allotted for one year.

Right to Information Week 2025 inaugurated in Imphal

Imphal Times: Imphal: Monday, 6^th October 2025.

The Manipur Information Commission today inaugurated the Right to Information (RTI) Week Celebration 2025 with an opening ceremony-cum-state level workshop held at the Auditorium Hall of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), Imphal.
The event was graced by Th. Satyabrata Singh, Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, as the Chief Guest; Asem Bhakta Singh, President of the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union, as the Guest of Honour; and Koijam Radhashyam Singh, State Chief Information Commissioner, as the President of the function.
The RTI Week 2025, being celebrated across the country from October 5 to 12, aims to popularize the RTI Act, 2005 and spread mass awareness among citizens and stakeholders about the importance of transparency and accountability in governance.
The programme was sponsored by the Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, and organized by the Manipur Information Commission.
Officials, journalists, and representatives from various departments attended the inaugural event, which marked the beginning of a week-long series of awareness activities and workshops on the Right to Information.

Mizoram RTI online portal received 6,572 questions since its launch in 2022: Officials

 Times of India: Aizawl: Monday, 6^th October 2025.

The online portal for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, developed for the Mizoram Information Commission, has received 6,572 queries since its launch in July 2022, state information commission officials said on Sunday.
The officials said Mizoram RTI online portal has become an important tool for the public to seek information from govt departments & corporations and it received 96 questions in the past four months.
They said while 22 intelligence and security agencies under the central govt are exempted from the mandatory release of security-related information, the criminal investigation department (special branch), district special branch and the special narcotics cell of the state police are exempted under the RTI Act, 2005, as amended from time to time.
“However, these agencies are not exempted when it comes to allegations of corruption and it is mandatory for them to give replies to the RTI queries,” the officials said.
Chief information commissioner (CIC) of the state information commission John Neihlaia has appealed to all the stakeholders to take advantage of the provisions of the RTI Act for transparency in the administration and combat the menace of corruption in the state.
The state information commission is observing RTI Week from Sunday till Oct 12. The main event will be held in Aizawl on Wednesday which will be graced by governor Gen VK Singh as the chief guest, Neihlaia said.

‘RTI has gradually been weakened, both in letter and spirit’: Activist Aruna Roy : By Nirmal Jovial

 The Week: Cover: Friday, 5^th October 2025.
Aruna Roy is a socio-political activist and founder-member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan

Aruna Roy | Kritajna Naik

Q/ How did Devdungri become a focal point for the RTI movement? How has the movement transformed the village?
The idea of living in Devdungri was to live with the people, like them. Even before MKSS was formed, a struggle with a feudal landlord in nearby Sohangarh spread the word that this group works on people’s issues. Initially, people were sceptical about our motives but soon their confidence grew. When people came with grievances, it became clear that access to information was critical to getting basic rights.

In 1992, a ration truck arrived late in the evening, and the following morning when villagers went to collect their ration, the dealer told them it had already been distributed! This resulted in an investigation that disclosed the fraud. At the time, a committee Devdungri Vikas Samiti was formed and a PDS (public distribution system) licence was obtained. A person trained by the MKSS now runs the ration shop with transparency.
The campaign for the Right to Information made people realise the need to engage with governance not as a supplicant but as a citizen to demand a right. What began with the campaigns for the right to work and right to food has now spread to a demand for universal pension and more.
Q/ What are your most memorable experiences from the RTI campaign? What were the innovative ways in which the demand was raised?
The struggle for RTI has been a people’s campaign. Their modes of communication have been built organically into a transformative and, for some, even a spiritual journey for truth. Mohan Ram of the MKSS, an illiterate dalit bard, shaped a strong communication stream of collective singing. The movement developed many songs, street plays, puppet shows, pamphlets, slogans and political skits and satires like Ghotala Rath Yatra (scam chariot march). Many of these songs were in the local dialect and picked their tone and rhythms from traditional songs. The hela is a political choir where a group of citizens sings on contemporary issues. There is a history [of the RTI campaign] that can be woven through their songs.
Q/ How has public perception of RTI evolved?
What began as a poor villager’s question about wages in public works developed into a huge campaign with multiple questions from multiple geographic areas on a spectrum of issues. The act of questioning itself was viewed as an offence before RTI. Many poor people who were denied their rights and questioned authority had to face police action. Authorities at all levels have become responsive. The constitutional definition of the people as sovereign has got a practical shape through the act of questioning.
Q/ The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, which tracks attacks on RTI users, has reported that more than 100 activists have been killed in the past two decades. Did you anticipate this?
Information is power. Those who do not want to share power will logically not want information to be shared. Disclosure of information exposes corruption/malpractice; we all know that.... By sharing as much information as possible in the public domain, one reduces the capacity to misuse power. Even during the public hearings conducted in the 1990s, people who spoke against malpractices were threatened. When there is a group involved in seeking information, individuals are at lower risk. The Whistleblowers Protection Act has been passed in 2014 to save these lives, but the government is still to notify it.

Where it all began: MKSS founding member Shankar Singh
 (standing, second from right) with early and current members of the
MKSS in Devdungari | Sanjay Ahlawat

Q/ Do you believe the essence of RTI has been diluted? What role do you see technology playing in either enhancing or restricting access to information?
We have seen a trend where RTI has gradually been weakened, both in its letter and spirit. Whether through the appointment of information commissioners or the changes related to their appointment, salary and tenure, there has been a deliberate effort to weaken the RTI structure.
Often, the information is not provided either citing clauses related to third party information or country’s security or personal information. The government has also sought to exclude later legislations from the purview of the act. The most heinous has been the provisions of the recently passed Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act. Under section 2(t), “Personal data means any data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such data.” (This could be seen as a vague definition, and activists say this could lead to anything becoming ‘personal data’.) “Personal data breach” under section 2(u) in the law means, “Any unauthorised processing of personal data or accidental disclosure, acquisition, sharing, use, alteration, destruction or loss of access to personal data that comprises the confidentiality, integrity or availability of personal data.” To put this simply, unless you have the express “consent” of the other person, you cannot process any personal information that has been digitised in any way.
The person responsible for any potential breach is called a ‘data fiduciary’ under section 2(i) and means, “Any person who alone or in conjunction with other persons determines the purpose and means of processing of personal data.” (A data fiduciary is any company, small or large, that handles personal data of Indians.)
While the law should ideally protect individuals from both the surveillance state and big data companies, who have been commercially mining data, it instead grants the government sweeping immunity from the applicability of this act and carves out a special space for the commercial use of data.
Under section 37(1)(b), there is a provision for the Central government to block content on the internet, so the larger technology and information companies will be brought in line to make sure that the ‘data fiduciaries’ will remain subservient to the priorities of the government. The few exemptions outlined in sections 7 and 17 of the bill come with qualifications and conditions that are to be defined by the government, thereby effectively ensuring that the government becomes the “master” and ultimate authority within the entire information framework. This bill, if enacted and implemented, will destroy transparency and fail to meet its goal of protecting data privacy.
Technology is a tool that can be used either to enhance RTI or to kill it. Technology has helped in gathering information and displaying it in an easy way, cutting across any language, geography, departments, etc. Portals like Jan Soochna Portal in Rajasthan and Mahiti Kanaja in Karnataka are live examples of how technology can play a transformative role by providing real-time information to citizens on a single platform. At the same time, using technology, a lot of information is being squeezed out of citizens and either made secret or misused for surveillance or for commercial purposes. Accessing information still remains a difficult process, notwithstanding RTI, because of the resistance of the system. This is creating serious information power imbalance.
Q/ The RTI movement demonstrated the power of grassroots activism in sustaining democratic processes. Given today’s political and social climate, do you think such movements have become more challenging?
Today’s environment is definitely challenging, which makes it all the more important for us to uphold constitutional values and principles. The demand for transparency directly stems from our fundamental right to a dignified life and lets an individual take an active part in governance. It allows us to check any arbitrary use of power. RTI has given every concerned citizen an opportunity to engage in public action. Any effort to subvert RTI has to be [challenged], as it is the gateway demand [for] democratic rights.
Q/ What lessons do you think future activists can learn from the RTI movement?
People understand democracy when you unpack the lexicon and jargon in which governance is usually cloaked. If you stand with truth and conviction, you get unimaginable support. An issue raised by a small number of illiterate labourers resulted in the snowballing of that issue, with people from all sections of society joining in. A democratic process needs people’s participation to thrive. People are not just beneficiaries, they are active agents of change.

Engaging youth, safeguarding rights, and literary insights : By Philip Mathew

The Week: Columns: Friday, 5^th October 2025.
The Right to Information Act is the focus as THE WEEK's cover story, detailing its origins, the fight for transparency, and the sacrifices of activists like Satish Shetty, stemming from movements like MKSS

Imaging: Binesh Sreedharan

AFTER YOU READ MY LETTER, I would appreciate it if you would turn to Page 9 and read 16-year-old Chris Rennie Dominic’s note to Resident Editor R. Prasannan. The Bengaluru boy disagrees with Prasannan’s column in the last issue, and argues his case well—without the name-calling and often illogically emotional outbursts that inhabit comment boxes online.​
Well done, Chris. You care enough about issues to respond. As a senior citizen, I am often dejected when young people say they do not care about politics. May your tribe continue to reject “broken systems handed down” to you, and together build a world better than the one I inherited and live in.​
I am sure Prasannan will write to you personally and argue his case. He is a judge’s son, after all. And, if I may add, THE WEEK’s first trainee, too. In 1982, THE WEEK began with just him and editor V.K.B. Nair sitting at the farthest ends of a long desk. Thanks again for writing, Chris, and accept the warm wishes of an editor and grandfather who has grandchildren older than you.​
This week’s cover on the toothless Right to Information Act highlights the anger that birthed the Act and the storm that could eventually brew if governments withhold the public’s right to know. Senior Correspondent Nirmal Jovial notes that more than 100 transparency activists have lost their lives in the pursuit of truth. He begins with the murder of Satish Shetty on January 13, 2010, in Talegaon Dabhade, Maharashtra.​
Nirmal also travelled to Beawar in Rajasthan, where the demand for the RTI Act was first raised in September 1995, during a 40-day dharna organised by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). He interviewed MKSS co-founder Aruna Roy to provide context to the movement. In Devdungari, Rajasthan, he met Sushila, who gave us the famous and earthy answer to why we need RTI: “Hamara paisa, hamara hisaab (our money, our accounts).”​
In other political stories, we look at the developments in Ladakh. The developments are special to us as Sonam Wangchuk was our Man of the Year 25 years ago. Former deputy chief of bureau Vijaya Pushkarna met him for that cover story. He shared the bitter tale of being whipped in school at Nubra Valley 150km from his home in Uleytopko and then being called a dunce at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Srinagar. But he had relatively happy memories of his time in Vishesh Kendriya Vidyalaya in Delhi, where he joined in Class 7.​
When people see only Wangchuk’s present anger, I cannot help but see the boy from the bleak mountains who has always yearned for better days for his people.
In other political news, Chief of Bureau (Mumbai) Dnyanesh Jathar interviews Maharashtra’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal on the Maratha reservation issue. Senior Assistant Editor Pratul Sharma marks the 100th anniversary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The RSS is trying to present itself as more inclusive, Pratul says, even as the assertion of Hindutva identity remains prominent in the political environment.​
In @leisure, Special Correspondent Anjuly Mathai interviews Kiran Desai on her new book. Desai admits that she sees the dark side of loneliness, but also sees “the worth of being alone as an artist, a writer and a woman”. I re-read the line a few times, but fail to see the bright side of being lonely.
But then, that is me. And I have not won a Booker.

How a grassroots movement ignited India's RTI revolution : By Nirmal Jovial

The Week: National: Friday, 5^th October 2025.
The Right to Information movement began with a powerful struggle for transparency in rural Rajasthan, initiated by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and culminating in the RTI Act

Voice of the voiceless: Sushila, one of the early leaders
of the MKSS, who gave the slogan ‘Hamara paisa, hamara hisaab’
| Sanjay Ahlawat

In September 1995, a mass meeting organised by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan’s Beawar town marked the first public demand for the right to information in law. Nearly six months later, a larger dharna unfolded at Beawar’s historic Chang Gate, with rural women forming the largest contingent. Lasting 40 days, the dharna spurred the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, ultimately paving the way for the RTI Act.
Lakshmi Narayan, a 49-year-old vegetable vendor at Chang Gate, recalls, “The place bustled with journalists and others from Jaipur, Delhi and beyond. Protesters came from nearby villages and local traders provided accommodation, food and drinks throughout the dharna.”
For the men and women who formed the backbone of this struggle, their battles are more than just memories. In hindsight, they see the real change their generation set in motion.
While Beawar was a crucial site for the movement, its driving force was in a small hut in Devdungari, a village in Rajsamand district, nearly 60km away.
In 1987, three “outsiders” Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh, along with his family moved into this hut. Singh’s relative owned it. They wanted to work with marginalised communities to find solutions for their struggles.
Roy, a former civil servant, had quit her job in 1975 to work with the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), a voluntary organisation founded by her husband, Bunker Roy. Dey was an American-educated activist, while Singh was a skilled communicator and an SWRC volunteer. “The idea was to live with the people, like them,” recalls Roy.
It was through Lal Singh, a police constable dismissed for protesting the alleged misuse of constables as domestic servants, that they encountered one of their first major issues. “I met them within months of their arrival. We used to roam around on bicycles,” remembers Lal Singh, now secretary of the School for Democracy Loktantrashala, a non-profit in Rajasthan.
Lal Singh’s village, Sohangarh, was under the feudal grip of Hari Singh, who illegally controlled over 1,500 acres and fined villagers for grazing cattle or collecting firewood on “his land”. The Devdungari team exposed his illegal holdings. They accessed government records and reclaimed a piece of land. They then transferred it to a women’s cooperative in the village, marking an early victory in their fight for justice.
The small hut with its courtyard now shaded by a bougainvillea planted by MKSS founders became a hub to strategise and mobilise workers.
In the drought-prone districts of Ajmer, Bhilwara, Pali and Rajsamand, survival depended on famine relief and rural development programmes. The team saw hardships first-hand at relief worksites, especially at Dadi Rapat. “People wanted work, but opportunities were scarce,” recalls Roy. “Even when they worked, they weren’t paid fully. To test the system, a group of 20 workers completed their task meticulously, unlike others who barely scraped the surface, knowing they’d be underpaid anyway.”
The 20 workers dug holes and requested the government engineer to measure their work, but he never showed up. When wages were paid, those who had worked diligently got less than those who hadn’t completed their tasks. “We demanded to see the muster roll, but the government dismissed us saying the records didn’t support our claims,” recalls Bhawar Singh, one of the workers.
The workers realised that to secure fair wages, they needed access to government records. However, authorities blocked their efforts, citing the Official Secrets Act of 1923.
The battles at Dadi Rapat and Sohangarh laid MKSS’s foundation. On May 1, 1990, during a rally of 1,000 people from 27 villages, MKSS was formally established. The group initially pushed for public access to muster rolls and financial records, verifying data through Jan Sunwais (public hearings). These hearings exposed corruption, drawing media attention that put pressure on the government.
On April 5, 1995, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat pledged in the assembly that the government would grant public access to development records. No action followed. A year later, the Beawar dharna began and Rajasthan passed the RTI Act in 2000.
Shankar Singh spearheaded the movement’s communication strategies, using art, puppetry, theatre, dance and music to engage the public. His Ghotala Rath Yatra (scam chariot march) a parody of BJP leader L.K. Advani’s rath yatra highlighted corruption scandals and gained traction in Jaipur and Delhi. Puppets and props from the 1990s are still preserved in Devdungari.
“A movement must stay connected to people’s lives to remain alive,” says Singh. “Since ours was non-violent, we had to carry it forward differently.” The group abandoned hunger strikes after an incident in Bhim village. “By the fifth day, police would intervene and break our fast,” he says. “So, we vowed never to do it again. Instead, we fought through music and theatre. Performing in local languages ensured everyone understood our message.”
Says Roy: “When people shape a campaign, their voices define its expression. Rural women have been at the heart of this struggle, though they were mocked as the dholki party and ghaghra paltan (drummers and skirt platoon).”
Sushila, a semi-literate but articulate woman, was one of those leaders. In 1996, when the Press Council of India released the first RTI draft, she travelled to Delhi with the MKSS core team. Among the attendees were former prime ministers and top editors. A journalist, noticing her traditional attire, asked, “How educated are you?” She replied, “Class four.” Dismissing her, he said, “RTI is for the educated. Why are you involved?”
She responded, “Educated people read papers, but the uneducated know a lot. When I give my son Rs10, I ask for an exact account. This government spends billions in our name; shouldn’t we ask for accounts? Hamara paisa, hamara hisaab (our money, our accounts).”
Her words became a defining slogan of the movement. Looking back, Sushila now working in rural development says they came naturally. “The law empowered people and instilled fear in those withholding information,” she says. “Today, key data, like ration and free medicine details, is shared voluntarily.”
But the biggest change she sees is in women’s education in the region. “Many women in the movement made sure their daughters got an education,” Sushila says with pride, standing next to a bougainvillea, which holds huge symbolic value in the fight for transparency.

Lessons for ECI, from the states : Venkatesh Nayak

Deccan Herald: Opinion: Friday, 5^th October 2025.
Clearly, despite 140 countries adopting RTI laws, the people’s right to know is not uniformly respected, let alone fulfilled across the globe.

This column is being published between two landmark dates occurring a fortnight apart, namely, the UN-declared International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) and the anniversary of the enforcement of India’s RTI Act. An international study report released on that day (September 28) ranks the Asia-Pacific region second after Central and Eastern Europe for providing some information in response to common test RTI applications filed across more than 120 countries. The findings place the African region at the bottom of the pile. Apparently, in some countries of the Arab region, it was not possible to even submit the test RTIs. Clearly, despite 140 countries adopting RTI laws, the people’s right to know is not uniformly respected, let alone fulfilled across the globe.
India was included in this comparative study. While the Union Health Ministry disclosed the total expenditure incurred on buying COVID vaccines (as revealed in Parliament in 2023), the Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Ministry transferred the test RTI to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). CPCB replied that it had not received any funds to be used for remediation measures, as no major environmental incidents had occurred between 2021-23. So, the test results are positive here!
Our own RTI Act will complete two decades of implementation next week. Assessment reports may be released, some of which might show how poorly this law has been faring in recent years. Review articles may be written, some either declaring its demise or prophesying such a fate in the foreseeable future. While acknowledging the many setbacks that the regime of transparency has faced since 2005, a few positive stories from recent months deserve to be highlighted to show that the glass is not only half empty but also half full.
Readers may recall reading my angst-ridden outpourings in these columns about the abysmal track record of the Election Commission of India (ECI) vis-à-vis its transparency obligations under, not only the RTI Act, but also the very election laws and rules it is mandated to implement. For example, in the middle of last year’s Lok Sabha elections, ECI claimed that it did not have a compiled list of Returning Officers (ROs) who conducted those elections. Later on, ECI treated like sarkari secrets, other election-related records – be it the list of expenditure-sensitive constituencies, vulnerability mapping reports, suspicious transaction reports received from banks during the operation of the Model Code of Conduct, election observers’ reports, ROs’ scrutiny reports submitted after the end of polling, or even absolute voter turnout figures recorded in Form 17-C, at every polling station.
However, my recent experience with some of the states has been refreshingly positive. Contrary to the common practice of public authorities rejecting requests for voluminous information, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Maharashtra, counted about 2,500 pages of last year’s election-related records, charged additional fees and postage, and delivered crystal-clear photocopies after receiving payment. When an appeal was filed about a handful of missing pages (to be expected when bulk photocopying is involved), the Joint CEO scheduled a telephonic hearing within a few days and supplied them free of charge, soon after.
A similar request was filed simultaneously with the CEOs of Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Haryana sent thousands of pages of scanned records, by email, entirely free of charge, within a month. The request posted to the Srinagar office of J&K’s CEO did not receive a response for a couple of weeks. So, another request was despatched to their Jammu office. Within a few days, more than a thousand pages of scanned records were delivered by email, believe it or not, free of charge. Later, as this CEO’s website had not yet displayed the vote tally of candidates in Form-20 for the 2024 elections, another RTI application was submitted. That RTI was transferred to all the districts, and they are sending scanned copies, one by one via email and yes, free of charge. Lest readers blame my ‘infamous’ reputation arising from these columns, let me tell you, these offices might not know me from Adam.
Where there is a will, there is a way. The ECI would do well to emulate these examples of good practice of the very authorities it supervises during elections. Adopting a pro-transparency approach can reduce the flak it receives for its performance and act as a confidence-building measure for the citizenry and the opposition parties. Will the triumvirate at Nirvachan Sadan pay heed?
The writer wakes up every morning thinking someone somewhere is hiding something.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.