The Indian Express: New Delhi: Monday, July 23, 2018.
ALTHOUGH THE
government has deferred pushing for an amendment to the RTI Act in Parliament
last week, one of the Central Information Commissioners has criticised the
proposed amendment Bill saying it weakened the Commission.
Chief
Information Commissioner R K Mathur being on leave, Information Commissioner
Sridhar Acharyulu on July 19 wrote to seniormost Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad
to convene a meeting of all Information Commissioners on the subject and write
to the government to withdraw the amendment Bill.
While
Acharyulu could not be contacted as his office said he was travelling on
Sunday, Azad said the matter was now “infructuous” since the government had
decided to not introduce the Bill in Parliament.
“He
(Acharyulu) did write to me. We would have had an internal meeting on it. But
considering what happened in Parliament on the Bill, it is infructuous. We
won’t be having any meeting on it,” he told The Indian Express.
“We keep
having these meetings on various things, like to discuss any high court
judgement overturning our orders etc,” he said.
According to
a PTI report, Acharyulu’s letter said the proposed Bill intends to defeat the
very purpose of RTI Act 2005, besides being an affront to federalism enshrined
as basic feature of Indian Constitution.
In the letter
marked to all his fellow commissioners, Acharyulu requested the CIC to send an
official communication to the government asking for withdrawal of the Right to
Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, the sources said.
“The central
government considered CIC as less in status than the CEC (Chief Election
Commissioner). The RTI Act says it is ‘constitutional right’, while the Bill
2018 considers it is not. If CEC that enforces a right under Article 324 (1) is
Constitutional institution, how CIC that enforces a fundamental right under
Article 19(1)(a) becomes a non-constitutional body?,” the letter asks.
Acharyulu
said it is not known how the government ignored the fact that Article 19(1)(a)
includes in its rubric both the “right to express choice through voting and
also right to information”.
“The Supreme
Court time and again said that the right to vote and RTI are fundamental
rights. Hence the CIC and CEC stand on equal footing and rightly placed at par
by RTI Act 2005 after thorough debate and consultations,” he wrote.
The
Commissioner wrote that Parliament ensured certainty and continuity of CIC as a
norm through the RTI Act, 2005, which says that a Commissioner will hold office
for five years or up to his age of 65 years (whichever is earlier) for sure.
He said that
through the Bill, the executive attempts to usurp that power from the hands of
Parliament and state legislatures also.
Noting that
though the provisions will not affect the service conditions of the sitting
Commissioners, he said, “It is our responsibility to inform the government and
the people of the possible consequences of these changes, and its effect on the
working of the RTI Act, especially regarding the independence of the Central
and State Information Commissions and Commissioners.”
“As per the
Constitutional scheme of distribution of powers between the Centre and States,
the Centre cannot make law for states on subject of access to records under the
control of States. But the Centre took shelter under the profound aim of
effectuating fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) saying the Right to
Information is its intrinsic part,” he wrote.
He said the
RTI Act 2005 recognises sovereign authority of states to select their SICs, the
Bill of 2018 strangely does not allow states to decide their term, status and
salary as it proposes the Centre will prescribe it from time to time.
“The RTI is
the only legislation after the Constitution of India, which had broad base of
peoples’ representation, consultation and discussion. It is a truly democratic
piece of legislation that can empower people to challenge the misgovernance.
While Centre intends to affect Central and State ICs, it did not consult them,”
he said.
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