One RTI Act, but 118 complications

Times of India: New Delhi: Sunday, 12 October 2014.

India has one Right to Information (RTI) Act but 118 separate sets of rules formulated independently by states, courts, information commissioners, Parliament and state assemblies that run a maze around the legislation.

The rules dictate varied fees, application format, number of words, type of identity proof required and mode of payment making the process of seeking information a complex one.

Just ahead of the RTI Act turning 10 on October 13, a report "Peoples Monitoring of the RTI regime in India-2011-2013" by Raag and NCPRI paints a bleak picture.

For instance 34 states and UTs have prescribed application fee of Rs 10. But cost of pursuing an RTI application could range between Rs 50 to Rs 100 excluding cost of information. Haryana charges Rs 50 for all RTI applications while Arunachal Pradesh charges Rs 50 for most applications but Rs 500 for information related to bids, tenders or business contracts.

Only Andhra Pradesh has cut down on the fees Rs 10 for cities, free of cost for village level and Rs 5 for subdistrict level.

Sikkim charges Rs 100 for both first and second appeal, while filing a first appeal in Madhya Pradesh costs Rs 50 and a second appeal Rs 100. While the central government has mandated Rs 2 per photocopy, Chhatisgarh has limited the number to 50 pages while Arunachal charges Rs 10.

To complicate things further, inspection of documents is allowed free of cost by some states for the first hour and then charges of Rs 5 are levied in Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. The cost of inspection of documents in Daman and Diu is Rs 100 a day for a maximum of 3 hours and if the information sought is older by a decade or more, the public authority can charge an additional Rs 25 an hour.

States have also placed odd restrictions on the format of the application. In Karnataka, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra the length of the RTI application cannot exceed more than 150 words while the Centre has mandated a 500 word limit.

There are similar inconsistencies in rules related to proof of identity required by public authorities. While the RTI act does not mandate any proof of identity section 3 does say that only Indian citizens can use the law. This has led to states like Goa, Gujarat, Odisha, Sikkim insisting on identity proof of the applicant.