Daily O: New Delhi: Wednesday, July 25, 2018.
The
government has listed a Bill in the current session of Parliament to amend the
Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. There are at least five reasons why the
proposed amendment must be opposed by everyone concerned about the health of
India’s democracy.
First, the
RTI Amendment Bill has been drafted in complete contravention of all principles
of pre-legislative consultation. The proposed amendments were not placed in the
public domain prior to being listed in Parliament. This precluded any
possibility of citizens expressing their views, suggestions and concerns about
the contents of the Bill.
The RTI Act,
2005 was enacted as a result of a strong people's movement with extensive
inputs from citizens of diverse socio-economic milieus. This resulted in the
creation of a law which is considered to be one of the most progressive
information access legislations in the world. No amendments to the law must be
made without following a robust democratic process of consultation with the
people of India who have demanded, used and protected this law.
Second, the
proposed amendment would seriously weaken people's fundamental right to
information. The amendments seek to destroy the independence of information
commissions — the final adjudicators under the law, responsible for ensuring
that provisions of the RTI Act are not violated.
The RTI law
fixes the tenure of information commissioners at five years, subject to the
retirement age of 65 years. The salaries, allowances and other terms of service
of the chief of the Central Information Commission are fixed at the same level
as that of the chief election commissioner. Those of the central information
commissioners and state chief commissioners, are on a par with election
commissioners. The chief and other election commissioners are paid a salary
equal to the salary of a judge of the Supreme Court, which is decided by
Parliament.
The
amendments seek to empower the central government to decide the tenure,
salaries, allowances and other terms of service of all information
commissioners in the country. This is a clear attempt to undermine their
independence as it would potentially make commissioners compliant with the
wishes of the government at the Centre, lest their tenures or salaries are
adversely impacted.
Third, the
rationale provided for the amendments is completely fallacious. The Bill states
that treating information commissioners on a par with functionaries of the
election commission is incorrect, as the latter is a constitutional body while
information commissions are statutory bodies.
There is,
however, nothing preventing any law from securing tenure, and protecting terms of
service of statutory regulatory bodies by equating them to functionaries of
constitutional bodies. In fact, this practice is being followed for various
institutions, including the CVC and the Lokpal. The fixed tenure and high
status conferred on commissioners under the RTI Act is to empower them to carry
out their functions autonomously and direct even the highest offices to comply
with the provisions of the law.
Fourth, the
Indian RTI Act has empowered millions of Indians to hold public functionaries
accountable for delivery of basic rights and entitlements. Anywhere between
four and six million RTI applications are filed every year across the country,
of which a large proportion are by the poorest and the most marginalised who
seek information about their basic rights denied to them due to corruption.
Sunita Devi,
a resident of a slum settlement in Delhi, was not provided her rations under
the Public Distribution System (PDS) for years on the pretext that her ration
shop was not receiving foodgrains. When she filed an application under the RTI
Act and accessed a copy of the monthly stock register of her ration shop, it
showed that the shop was receiving its full quota of ration every month. The
sale register was a complete work of fiction, with names of people who were either dead or did not
live in the slum.
Using the
information obtained, Sunita exposed the corruption in the PDS in her
constituency and managed to get justice, not just for herself, but thousands
like her. The RTI Act has empowered citizens like Sunita Devi to access their
right to food, old age pensions, water, sanitation, healthcare and education.
Any attempt
to dilute the law would deal a blow to the ability of people living at the
margins, in remote villages and slums of the country, to hold the government
accountable for the delivery of basic services and rights.
Finally, the
RTI Act has been used extensively by citizens to question the highest offices
in the country. People have used the law to verify the educational
qualifications of elected representatives and sought information about assets
held by public servants. Innumerable big-ticket scams, like the Vyapam scam and
the Adarsh scam have been unearthed using the RTI Act. The law has given people
an opportunity to closely monitor the functioning of their government and
participate meaningfully in the process of governance. Any dilution of the
legislation, which is being used so effectively to show truth to power, would
be detrimental for the country.
Public and
political opposition to the RTI Amendment Bill has forced Modi sarkar to defer
its introduction in Parliament. One hopes that the government will drop the
idea of amending this seminal piece of legislation. In the meantime, there is
little choice but to collectively oppose the onslaught on our fundamental right
to information.
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