Economic
Times: New Delhi: Thursday, 30 July 2015.
Three years
after the Centre framed Right to Information rules, it has finally asked the
state governments, high courts and Supreme Court to harmonise their rules and
ensure uniformity in fee charged by them from RTI applicants.
The
directives are significant as several states and high courts are charging more
than Rs 10 - as stipulated in RTI Act rules by the Centre - as application fee.
The Centre had notified a set of RTI Rules in 2012. While drafting them, it was
stipulated that once notified, the state governments would be requested to
adopt these rules "mutatis mutandis" (making necessary alterations
while not affecting the main point at issue) so that there might be uniformity,
as far as possible, in the matter of implementation of the Act throughout the
country, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said in an order.
"All the
states or competent authorities are, therefore requested to kindly review their
Right to Information (Fee and Cost Rules) and Appeal Procedure Rules and to
notify, if need be, fresh rules in consonance with the those notified by the
Government of India," it said in an order sent to the states and
registrars of Supreme Court and high courts.
The order
comes after a number of RTI applications filed by activist Commodore (retired)
Lokesh Batra. Speaking to ET, Batra said, "The rules notified in 2012 had
been finalized after four years of hard work. Though most states are charging
Rs 10 as RTI application fee, many courts are charging a whopping Rs 500 as
application fee. Now after repeated RTIs and reminders, DoPT has finally asked
the states and courts to fall in line."
DoPT had in
2011 also written to public authorities to ensure that "the fee should not
become disincentive for using the Right to Information". It has now been
observed that a few states have not yet harmonised their fee rules with that of
the central government, the Centre's order said.
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