‘Privacy not a ground to curb freedom of speech’

The Hindu: Visakhapatnam: Monday, August 27, 2018.

Central Information Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar calls for prudent utilisation of RTI Act

Central Information Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar on Sunday appealed to RTI activists not to misuse the Right to Information Act to pursue frivolous matters, but utilise it to expose the corrupt officials who were trying to shield themselves in the name of privacy.

Participating as the chief guest at a State-level training programme on privacy laws, judgements and RTI, organised jointly by the Public Forum and Help to Help Foundation at here on Saturday, he said Parliament could impose ‘reasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression.

Referring to the Article 19 (2) of the Constitution, he said privacy, however, was not a ground to impose reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. “The information about action taken on public servants in the cases where they involved in irregularities does not fall under the ‘private’ category and can be secured under the RTI Act.”

He, however, said that if disclosure of information could have an impact of an investigation, it should not be shared. Participating in the programme, Joint Collector G. Srijana said that the rights of various sections of the people were achieved after several struggles to protect their interests. Referring to the attitude of some officials on providing information under RTI as ‘burdensome’ and labelling RTI applicants as ‘petition mongers’, Ms. Srijana deplored such behaviour.

Accountability matters

“The officials must remember that they are public servants first and are accountable to people on a daily basis. The thought that sharing information is a burden or considering it as a ‘favour’ is wrong,” she said and called for a change in such attitude.

Former Vice-Chancellor of Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, Y. Satyanarayana also spoke. Coordinator or Public Forum Kandregula Venkata Ramana and chairman of Help to Help Foundation B.M. Naidu were present.