The RTI Act: Applicability and Accountability of Public Authorities with reference to Section 4

Profile of the Author: Kanav Bharti Gupta is a third-year student in ICFAI Law School, The ICFAI University Dehradun and has a keen interest in Criminal law, Labour law and Intellectual Property Rights.

How and why did the Right to Information Act come into existence?

In a democracy, the Government should be responsible and accountable to the individuals. Therefore the government discloses and provides the information of documents, files and samples to the citizens. The Right to Information is an integral part of a plethora of rights that are given to the citizens of the country which include the right to think, the right to express themselves and live with integrity and dignity in the country. But has that always been the case, have we always had this right? The journey began with the 1977 Lok Sabha Elections, in which Morarji Desai declared that it would not “misuse the intelligence services and government authority for personal and partisan ends”. A landmark judgment came in the year 1986 in the case of Mr. Kulwal v. Jaipur Municipal Corporation[1] which held that Freedom of Speech and Expression[2] clearly includes the Right to Information as without information, the freedom of speech and expression cannot be fully exercised. Subsequently, this continued up to 1989 when the then Prime Minister Shri V.P. Singh said, “We will have to increase access to information. If the government functions in full public view, wrongdoings will be minimised and Right to Information will be enshrined in our Constitution”.[3] This led the charge towards the formulation of the statute and finally, the Right to Information Act was passed in 2005 which gave an opportunity to the people to finally have a say in the functioning of the public authorities.

Applicability of RTI: How are Public Authorities made accountable to the public?

According to Sec 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005; public authority means any institution or body which is designated by the government to work for the public and be in charge of performing tasks and facilitating all those requirements which are required for maintaining public life. The Act provides for the recruitment of Public Information Officials whose responsibility is to divulge the information to the masses.

In our day to day lives, we get to deal with these authorities either way deliberately or eventually. Since the sole motive of incorporating these authorities is to make themselves work in the general interest, they are the one who connects themselves with the locals and understands them better. Due to all these things, the Legislature while drafting the RTI Act, 2005 inserted the provision of providing maximum significant information to the general public about a department or some other public body. The general public is the beneficiary of all the functions and duties which are performed by these authorities, and then it is very much important that the one who is the ultimate beneficiary should be fully aware and well informed about the benefactor. This is where the 17 point manual provided under Sec 4 of the RTI Act comes into power which ensures the accountability and transparency of the public authorities.

What is Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005?

Section 4 in the Act provides that Every Public Authority shall maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this act. [4]

This section is the catalyst for the mandate of keeping and maintaining a 17 pointer detailed Information by every public authority within One Hundred twenty days from enacting the RTI Act.
The peculiarity of these 17 points is that they are comprehensive and envisage almost every facet of a department for which it is accountable and answerable towards users of RTI.
Information under these 17 points includes functions and duties of the organization, particulars of its Employees, powers, duties and particulars regarding the remuneration of its officers and employees. Moreover, it also includes information related to procedures, rules, decision making processes etc. of the organization. [5]

Thus, the intent of the legislature in enacting section 4 is evident and clears that in spite of the availability of Right to Information; legislature suo moto wants to provide as much information as possible so that the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information.

What is the cause of concern?

Under section 4 of the act, as already discussed, every public authority shall maintain with itself a record of all the information as prescribed in those 17 points. In the landmark judgment of Ms. Parminder Kaur v. Vigilance Department, [6] the 17 points manual was analyzed and it was held that “publication of information is not optional. It is a statutory requirement which every public authority is bound to meet and the authority is obliged to update the information every year”. This shows that the legislative intention behind the framing of the section is not for the masses to inquire but for the information to be readily available.

But despite the passage of a long time since the enactment of the act and repeated efforts of the commissions, there are still many civic bodies who are not complying with the abovementioned provision. Availability of the information manual for the general public would not only confine the need of Filing RTI’s but would also play a significant role in curbing corrupt practices in government departments.

What needs to be done?

The public authorities need to understand their responsibility towards the general public and comply with the provisions of the RTI Act. The legislature and judiciary need to apply strict measures to ensure this compliance and make sure that the rights of the public are not hampered as a result of the negligence of the officials. Recently a number of judgments have been passed by the Central Information Commission in an attempt to draw a paradigm between the responsibilities and powers of the Public Information Officers of the public authorities. It needs to be made sure that the authorities are aware of the actions that would be taken against them in case of negligence and be completely accountable to the masses. This is the only way in which the sole purpose of the Act and the legislative intent of “making the people aware” will be fulfilled.

[1] AIR 1988 Raj 2.

[2] Article 19(1)(a) of The Constitution of India, 1950.

[3] https://www.britannica.com/place/India/V-P-Singhs-coalition-its-brief-rise-and-fall

[4] Section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act, 2005.

[5] Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, 2005.

[6] CIC/WB/C/2008/00115/LS.

FAQs

1. Is it the responsibility of the public authorities to divulge information only when sought?

Answer: No, under section 4 of the RTI Act, the public authorities need to prepare a manual contemplating the necessary details of the organization which needs to be published every year through their respective websites.

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