Deccan Herald: New Delhi: Sunday, January 12, 2014.
In order to
protect an information seeker from any adverse consequences, the government has
decided to do away with a mandatory requirement of filing a query under the
Right to Information (RTI) Act with full address of the applicant.
As a result,
if an RTI plea is now filed with a post box number, the authorities cannot deny
providing the information.
Besides, the
Centre also directed the authorities not to disclose personal details of the
RTI applicants, while displaying the information, on the website with a purpose
to avoid any future harassment.
The
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the nodal department under the
transparency law, issued a memorandum on Wednesday, directing all authorities
not to insist on information seekers to provide their full address for getting
answers under the transparency law.
The
order–sent to different departments and authorities including chief secretary
of all states on Wednesday–said the applicants could get information even after
giving post box number.
This was in
compliance with a direction issued by the Calcutta High Court on a PIL filed by
Avishek Goenka in November 2013.