Legal Desire: National: Tuesday, May 01, 2018.
Nearly a year
after the government has come out with the draft RTI Rules in 2017 still it
faces uncertainty and unambiguousness and lay in the back-burner, with stagnant
progress insight towards the approval.This delay has been attributed to many
objections from sections of the Central Information Commission (CIC). There are
many activists who have argued the draft rules endangered applicants and
reduced transparency. Another cause of very concern is the second proposal;
that applicants be allowed to withdraw an appeal if the matter hasn’t been
heard or order is pending.This increases the risk of appellant drastically.
“The minute you say you can withdraw, the guy who is affected will be at your
throat.”
There have
been other recommendations that will likely to backfire on those who are
seeking information. Eg, the proposal mandates more documents than before while
applying under RTI. If they are found unsuitable, the appeal can be returned.
“They have made the process more cumbersome.” The appellant has to file
complaints within 90 days of the cause. Afterward, a special request has to be
made to accept the delay and explain the cause of it. However, in most cases,
violation of RTI Act by officials, such as providing false information, comes
to light much later.
The very
important proposal which is been made is that complaints must be accompanied by
a copy of the RTI application which needs to be submitted to the Public
Information Officer.However, often, the PIO refuses to accept an application
and Even then, or in complaints related
to non-appointment of PIOs, the appellant has to submit the PIO-approved RTI
application copy, a mandatory requirement or else need to struggle through the
end for completing the required routine cycle. This is certainly in direct
violation of SC orders.
RTI Officials
agrees that there is a huge scope of some improvements. A stronger mechanism
needs to be introduced to deal with non-compliance of information
commissioners’ orders, which is a common complaint But the overall situation is
worrying, especially because the RTI Act is currently the world’s most widely
used transparency law: as many as 4-6 million people use it annually.
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