Uproar over proposal for new clause in RTI Act

Express Buzz; Anil S: 08 Nov 2010

KOCHI: A year after the Centre proposed some amendments to the RTI Act, uncertainty still continues over whether the new clause on 'frivolous or vexatious' applications should be included in the Act or not.

It was exactly a year ago that a proposed amendment to the RTI Act came up before the information commissioners to include a clause to term certain RTI applications as 'frivolous or vexatious'. The RTI activists across the country are up in arms against the proposal.

The proposal for the amendments to the RTI Act was presented during a meeting of the information commissioners across the country, organised by the Department of Personnel of Training (DoPT) in November 2009 in New Delhi. The particular clause on 'frivolous and vexatious' applications in the proposal was opposed by most of the information commissioners at the meeting itself.

"The proposal of terming applications as 'vexatious' doesn't seem to be of any purpose. Of course, sometimes there are frivolous applications, which interrupt the daytoday functioning of a government office. Recently such an application came up before the commission. We asked the applicant to go to the office concerned and check the documents himself without affecting the functioning of the office," Chief Information Commissioner V V Giri said.

The RTI activists are of the view that if a public information officer is given the power to term a particular application as frivolous, that will defeat the very purpose of the Act.

"The RTI Act has already provided certain guidelines on how an information should be given. If an application seeks an information which is so vast in nature, the PIO can tell the applicant to go to the office and check the documents himself. However, in such cases the purpose of the applicant should also be verified," RTI Kerala Federation general secretary D B Binu said.

According to Section 7(9) of the RTI Act, "an information shall ordinary be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question." Recently, the Delhi High Court had imposed a fine on an RTI applicant after terming the application as 'frivolous'.