The Hindu: Editorial: Monday, July 23, 2018.
As a law that
empowers the citizen, the Right to Information Act, 2005 quickly struck root in
a country saddled with the colonial legacy of secretive government. The move by
the NDA government to amend the far-sighted law aims at eroding the
independence of the Information Commissions at the national level and in the
States. The proposed amendments show that the Central government seeks control
over the tenure, salary and allowances of the Chief Information Commissioner
and Information Commissioners at the Centre, and the State Chief Information
Commissioners. Such a change would eliminate the parity they currently have
with the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners and, therefore,
equivalence with a judge of the Supreme Court in matters of pay, allowances and
conditions of service. The Centre will also fix the terms for State Information
Commissioners. This is an ill-advised move and should be junked without
standing on prestige. If at all, the law needs to be amended only to bring
about full compliance by government departments and agencies that receive
substantial funding from the exchequer, and to extend its scope to more
institutions that have an influence on official policy. The Supreme Court has held
the right to information as being integral to the right to free expression
under Article 19(1)(a); weakening the transparency law would negate that
guarantee.
In its
rationale for the amendments, the Centre has maintained that unlike the EC,
Information Commissions are not constitutional bodies but mere statutory
creations under the law. This is a narrow view, betraying an anxiety to tighten
the hold of the administration on the Commissions, which even now get little
official support to fill vacancies and improve efficiency. A recent public
interest petition filed in the Supreme Court by the National Campaign for
People’s Right to Information pointed out that the Central Information
Commission has over 23,500 pending appeals and complaints, and sought the
filling up of vacancies in the body. In many States, the Commissions are either
moribund or working at low capacity owing to vacancies, resulting in a pile-up
of appeals. The challenges to the working of the law are also increasing, with
many State departments ignoring the requirement under Section 4 of the Act to
publish information suo motu. The law envisaged that voluntary disclosure would
reduce the need to file an application. Since fines are rarely imposed,
officers give incomplete, vague or unconnected information to applicants with
impunity. Proposals to make it easier to pay the application fee, and develop a
reliable online system to apply for information, are missing. These are the
serious lacunae. Attempts were made by the UPA government also to weaken the
law, including to remove political parties from its purview. Any move to
enfeeble the RTI Act will deal a blow to transparency.
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