Live
Law: Kerala: Saturday, 21 November 2015.
The
Government of Kerala has issued a Circular to all public authorities in the
State to bring amendments in the Right to Information Act, 2005. The circular has sought for data regarding
RTI Applications received by various departments in the State including the
difficulties faced by various Government departments in case of irrelevant/
fake RTI Applications. The Secretary to Government K.R. Jyothilal IAS has
issued this circular as Committee of Subordinate Legislation of Parliament has
decided to amend the Act “to bring transparency in the functioning of
government bodies and to expose malpractices if any in the system”.
The decision
to amend the RTI Act can only be seen as a move by the Government to dilute one
of the strongest RTI legislations in the world to make it into yet another lame
legislation. What is even more shocking is the fact that the Committee on
Subordinate Legislation of Parliament is not empowered to make amendments to
the Act. The power of the Committee is only recommendatory in nature.
There were
several attempts by UPA Government in the past decade to disarm the Act and to
make the Citizen’s right to question the bureaucracy less effective. These moves were resisted and defeated by the
Civil Society by popular movements such as the ones under Anna Hazare , Aruna
Roy etc. All the amendments suggested by the Government of India including the
present one is brought under the guise of making the Act more effective and
efficient. The former Central Information Commissioner Shri. Shailesh Gandhi
during his tenure had out rightly rejected such a proposal mooted by the UPA
Government to amend the Act. He stated
that the Act is not ripe for any amendments as of now and any amendment would
only serve to dilute the various provisions of the Act.
The circular
seeking response from the Government Officials without taking into
consideration the opinions of stake holders including Civil Society, RTI
activists and Non-governmental organizations is undemocratic and is totally
against the spirit of the Act. The current trend of taking into account the
opinion of the Public in making reforms in the legislation is glaringly absent
here. The Act had played a significant role in exposing corruption and malpractice
in the Governments since its inception. Political parties have always taken a
defensive attitude against its inclusion under RTI, the Executive fears the
damage that can be brought out by the disclosure of malpractice and corruption
and the Judiciary is not always willing to protect the interest of the Ordinary
Citizen in getting information from Public Authorities. The Civil Society
should wake up against this peculiar situation and fight any move by the
Government to disarm the RTI Act.
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