The
Hindu: New Delhi: Friday, November 02, 2012.
Days after
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cautioned against the misuse of the Right to
Information Act, the Cabinet on Thursday bowed to protests and withdrew a set
of amendments it had proposed to the Act, among them an amendment to restrict
the disclosure of file notes to social and development issues.
The news came
as a major relief to the RTI fraternity, which has been in ferment over Dr.
Singh’s speech and a recent judgment of the Supreme Court mandating the
appointment of judges to the Information Commissions.
Said RTI
pioneer and member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council Aruna Roy:
“For four years we struggled to get these amendments out of the Cabinet, and
finally we have succeeded. This is a big day for us.”
Cleared in
2006;
The
amendments were cleared by the Cabinet in 2006, though public protests ensured
that they were never taken to Parliament for passage. Minister of State for
Personnel V. Narayanasamy said the amendments were being withdrawn in view of
the larger public sentiment against diluting the seminal legislation. He
accepted that the decision was taken in response to representations by civil
society activists, NGOs and Information Commissioners.
Sonia’s
opposition helps;
NAC and
government sources said Ms. Gandhi’s strong opposition to the amendments was a
major factor in their withdrawal.
Ms. Roy said
while the said file notes were at the heart of the RTI Act, and limiting their
access would have destroyed the legislation, the two other amendments were
equally pernicious. These were: Exemption of examination papers and selections
to the Union Public Service Commission from the Act and disallowing information
on ongoing executive decisions. The RTI Act already exempts ongoing Cabinet
decisions from purview and extending the exemption to executive decisions would
have rendered the government virtually out of bounds to RTI queries.
Nikhil Dey of
the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information said the victory was
proof that even a determined government had to give in to popular pressure
ultimately.
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