NEW DELHI: The recently notified rules for the Right to Information Act have made filing applications more difficult and defeat the basic spirit of the transparency legislation, National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy has told ET.
The final rules, notified by the department of personnel and training on July 31, mandate a 500-word limit for applications and prescribe a long list of documents for appeals, among other stringent conditions. The department rejected many of Congress president Sonia Gandhi-headed NAC's suggestions, which were finalised by a sub-group on transparency and accountability led by Roy.
"NAC's recommendation that the appeal to the commission shall not be returned on the grounds that documents are incomplete, has been disregarded," Roy said, citing an example, even as she pointed out that the department accepted some of the suggestions. "This is obviously going to harm the ease of filing an application, leading in certain cases to return of an appeal based on technicalities, and consequent non-delivery of a basic right."
The group headed by Roy had arrived at its suggestions after several meetings with RTI activists and citizen groups on the rules proposed by the department in December 2010.
Contrary to its suggestions, however, the applicant will have to get a list of prescribed documents authenticated and verified in case of an appeal against incomplete information or delay in information provided by a government department. The appeal will be returned to the applicant if a few of the prescribed documents are missing.
"It is important to note that the Act places the burden of proof on the public information officer for showing there was no mala fide in delay or rejection. Quite contrary to that spirit, some of these rules are placing unnecessary burden on the appellant," Roy said.
RTI activists say the new rules are open to interpretation by the public information officer, which could translate into harassment of the applicant. "NAC had recommended that the documents that an applicant needs to provide should be self-verified and self-authenticated. But the DoPT has clearly disregarded that. Now an applicant will have to get it done by a gazetted officer. It will also depend on a PIO if he would want self-verified documents or those verified by a gazetted officer," said RTI activist Lokesh Batra.
"If the appellant has to go through a process where documents need to be photocopied, verified and attested (perhaps even by some other authority), it will make the filing of the second appeal extremely complicated and cumbersome," Roy said.
NAC was also taken aback by the way the department notified the rules. The government appeared to have acceded to public opinion when it did not enact the rules in 2010, Roy said. "It seems, after all, the intention was still alive, and after a recent period of confusion about where the file was, and about the language and content of the proposed rules, the rules have suddenly appeared in the public domain as a final notification," Roy said. The rules should be framed to facilitate applicants in their RTI requests and not to be misused to harass or discourage an applicant, citizen groups, including national campaign for People's Right to Information of which Roy is a member, had earlier said.
Governments, both at the Centre and state, have shown little enthusiasm in implementing the RTI Act, Roy said. She added that a simple measure, requiring all RTI applications and their answers to be uploaded on the website by the department, would have strengthened the legislation. "Well implemented record maintenance under Section 4 (1) (a), and proper proactive disclosure under Section 4 (1) (b) would reduce the need for many RTI applications, appeals and harassment of PIOs," she added.
Source : The Times of India, August 20, 2012
