CIC to enforce disclosures by 330 public authorities

Ritu Sarin: Indian Express; Sun Nov 14 2010,

New Delhi : In a landmark move, the Central Information Commission (CIC) is set to enforce ‘voluntary disclosure’ by 330 public authorities, including all ministries, government departments and public sector undertakings. Right to Information (RTI) activists have argued that timely disclosures under Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005, would likely have brought alleged scams like those in the allocation of 2G spectrum and Mumbai’s Adarsh Housing Society to notice earlier.

RTI provisions are now set to be used to give public authorities a deadline to implement the hitherto “obligatory” disclosures. Besides other requirements of voluntary disclosure, Section 4 provides for a public authority to make public “all relevant facts while formulating important policies or arriving at decisions which affect the public”.

Chief Information Commissioner A N Tiwari told The Sunday Express that orders would be issued to 330 public authorities early next week, giving them 120 days to implement the provisions of Section 4.

“The order will be signed by all members of the Commission... It is being done on the basis of an analysis of the generality of appeals which have not been complied with,” Tiwari said.

He added that public authorities will thereafter be given six months to complete their record management systems, and four months to put other relevant information on the department or ministry on their websites.

While full contents of the CIC’s order are not yet known, the publication of a “negative list” by all public authorities of sensitive information and hitherto confidential documents may also be required to be made public before the expiry of the deadline.

Very few public authorities have complied with Section 4 disclosures even partly in the five years that the Act has been in force.

Tiwari also pointed out that after the implementation of all provisions of Section 4, the volume of vexatious and repetitive RTI applications are expected to fall drastically.”Mandatory voluntary disclosures, I am sure, will have a huge impact. Public authorities will know clearly what to disclose via the RTI route and what not to disclose,” he said. “Subordinates will stop looking over each others shoulders when information is being supplied to RTI applicants.”