Role of Central & State Governments in Implementation of the RTI Act

 

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Role of Central & State Governments in Implementation of the RTI Act

 

In order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the Government of India has enacted the Right to Information Act, 2005. It lays down certain obligatory and administrative functions to be performed by the appropriate governments, competent authorities and public authorities for proper implementation of the provisions of the Act so as to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities.   

Though competent authorities and public authorities are part and parcel of the governments and cannot be considered as separate entities still the Act identifies their specific role and responsibilities to be performed by each of them. This aspect has been dealt with in another Article, separately. 

Appropriate government: The term appropriate government has been defined in section 2(a) of the Act which is as under: 

“appropriate government” means in relation to a public authority which is established, constituted, owned, controlled or substantially financed by funds provided directly or indirectly-

(i) by the Central Government or the Union territory administration, the Central Government;

(ii)  by the State Government, the State Government; 

It clarifies that in the case of Union Territory administration the appropriate government is the Central Government. 

Statutory Functions: The central and state governments have to perform the following statutory functions: 

Constitution of Commissions and appointment of Commissioners: The central and state governments have to constitute Central and State Information Commissions and appoint Information Commissioners for them as per section 12 and 14 of the Act.  The central government has constituted the Central Information Commission located at Delhi and the respective state governments too have complied with the provision, by and large. 

The respective governments, however, need to ensure that the vacancies created due to retirement etc. get filled up at the earliest so that the Commissions can perform their functions smoothly and the appeals and complaints can be disposed of well in time.   

Provide officers and staff to Commissions: The central and state governments have to provide officers and staff to their respective Information Commissions for discharge of their functions, as per section 13(6) and 15 (6) respectively.  This aspect has also been taken care of by most of the governments. 

Notification for exempted organisations: As per section 24 the Central/State governments may exempt certain intelligence and security organisations from the purview of the Act through notification and amend the second Schedule containing list of such agencies by including or omitting names therefrom.

The central government has to lay on the table of each House of Parliament the copies of notifications issued, by them from time to time in the ensuing session. Every notification issued by the central government shall be laid before each House of Parliament. [Section 24 (3)] 

Likewise, every notification issued by the state government regarding intelligence and security agencies included or excluded in the second schedule shall be laid before the State Legislature. [Section 24 (5)] 

Annual reports of Commissions: The Central and State Information Commissions shall, as soon as practicable after the end of each year, prepare a report on the implementation of the provisions of this Act during that year and forward a copy thereof to the appropriate Government. [Section 25 (1)] 

Supply information for reports: In view of the above provision, each Ministry or Department shall, collect and provide such information, in relation to the public authorities within their jurisdiction, to the Central/State Information Commission, as is required to prepare the report. The government organisations, therefore, need to comply with the requirements concerning the furnishing of the required information and keeping of records for the purposes of this section. [Section 25 (2)] 

Content of annual report: The public authorities shall have to maintain necessary statistics about the number of applications received, disposed of, pending, cases etc. for preparation of annual reports  The annual report shall state in respect of the year to which the report relates, - 

(a)  the number of requests made to each public authority;

(b)  the number of decisions where applicants were not entitled to access to the documents pursuant to the requests, the provisions of this Act under which these decisions were made and the number of times such provisions were invoked;

(c) the number of appeals referred to the Central/State Information Commission, for review, the nature of the appeals and the outcome of the appeals;

(d) particulars of any disciplinary action taken against any officer in respect of the administration of this Act;

(e)  the amount of charges collected by each public authority under this Act;

(f)   any facts which indicate an effort by the public authorities to administer and implement the spirit and intention of this Act;

(g) recommendations for reform, including recommendations in respect of the particular public authorities, for the development, improvement, modernization, reform or amendment to this Act or other legislation or common laws or any other matter relevant for operating the right to access information. [Section 25 (3)] 

The Central Information Commission has issued circulars on 29th December 2005 and 10th April 2006 to maintain information in specified form and also send regular reports to them. 

“The Commission has decided that the above mentioned report would be prepared for each year ending in March so that it could be laid before the House Session of Parliament every year.  It is, therefore, requested that each Ministry or Department, in relation to the public authorities within their jurisdiction, should place the requisite information in respect of each point mentioned above (section 25(3)) for each public authority under their jurisdiction at their website and this information should be updated every three months.  The requisite information till December, 2005 may be placed on website by 31.1.2006 and this information for the period ending 31.3.2006 should be updated by 15.4.2006 and so on.  Instead of sending hard copies of this information, the Commission should be informed of the fact that the requisite information has been placed and updated on website within 7 days of the due dates for the purpose mentioned above.” 

“In order to seek the above information, the Commission has decided to devise a common proforma for seeking an annual return that could be used for sending this information. A proforma prepared in this regard is enclosed as Annexure I.  Every Ministry is requested to fill this proforma for all public authorities including Departments working with them.  In column 2 of the proforma, details of each public authority may be given in each row.  It may kindly be noted that besides providing information for the Ministry and its Departments, this proforma is to be used for providing information for all public authorities as defined under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005.  Accordingly, every Ministry/Department will provide information for every public authority including Public Sector Undertakings, Autonomous Bodies set up under the Societies Act, Statutory Corporations, Boards, Constitutional Bodies like C&AG, Election Commission of India, Supreme Court, Delhi High Court, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and NGOs financed by them or in their control etc. as per Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 in a single proforma. 

Educational Program for the public: The appropriate government should develop and organize educational program to advance the understanding of the public. [Section 26(1)] 

Delhi government had undertaken this programme intensively and organised workshops from time to time covering thousands of Welfare Associations. 

Training of Public Information Officer: Necessary training should be provided to the officers concerned with the implementation of the Act. [Section 26(1)(d)] 

The first report of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission also lays stress on this aspect. This is an ongoing programme and most of the governments are implementing it. 

Compilation of guide in 18 months: It requires that all governments should compile a guide within eighteen months.  [Section 26 (2)] 

Publishing and updating of guidelines at regular intervals The Central and State Governments shall, update and publish the guidelines at regular intervals. 

Power to make Rules: The governments have been given powers to make rules with regard to fixation of fee for various purposes, fixing salary of officers and staff appointed for the commission. The governments have also been empowered to make rules about the procedure to be adopted for deciding appeal by the Commissions. It says that the appropriate Government may make rules to carry out the provisions of this Act. [Section 27(1)] 

The rules may be framed for the following matters, namely:

(a)  the cost of the medium or print cost price of the materials to be disseminated under sub-section (4) of section 4:

(b)  the fee payable under sub-section (1) of section 6;

(c)  the fee payable under sub-section (1) and (5) of section 7:

(ca) the term of office of the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners under sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 13 and the State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners under sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 16;

(cb) the salaries, allowances and other terms and conditions of service of the Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioners under sub-section (5) of section 13 and the State Chief Information Commissioner and the State Information Commissioners under sub-section (5) of section 16;".

(d)  the salaries and allowances payable to and the terms and conditions of service of the officers and other employees

(e)  the procedure to be adopted by the Central/State Information Commission, in deciding the appeals under

(f)   any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed. [Section 27(2)] 

Laying of Rules: The Act provides that - every rule made by the Central Government under this Act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each House of Parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions. If before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both Houses agree in making any modifications in the rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not to be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule. [Section 29(1)] 

Removal of Difficulties: If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this Act, the Central Government may, by order published in the Official Gazette, make such provision not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for removal of the difficulty. [Section 30(1)]



FAQs

Q.1.     Can Union territories set up their own Information Commissions?

Ans.1 No.

Q.2.     Can Union territories frame their own fees rules?

Ans. 2 No.

 

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