Need to amend the RTI Act: Some suggestions

(This note was submitted to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India)

Summary:    The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 has been underutilised due to weaknesses in its implementation and misconceptions about its applicability to private sector information. Assessing the effectiveness of the law, only based on number of RTI applications and percentage of applications responded may not be appropriate. So long as we do not have information on the manner of implementation of the law and how the RTI requests made under the law improved the lives of citizens and governance, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of the law as well as its implementation. Two nation-wide assessments and a Task Force of DOPT brought out certain lacunae, especially in suo motu disclosures. The DOPT, instead of notifying rules, issued only an executive order to address the lacunae. The annual reports of the Commissions are simply tabled before the concerned legislatures without any report on action taken. There is no provision to enforce implementation of improvements suggested by DOPT and recommendations made by Commissions. Not much information on private sector is disseminated under section 4 (suo motu disclosures). Whenever privatisation is resorted to by the Government, the public will forego their right to information. Apart from these, there are several other lacunae in the Act and its implementation, particularly in respect of furnishing information on private sector and suo motu disclosures. To address these issues, appropriate amendments to be made to the Act and the rules to be notified are suggested.

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In a participative democracy, information generated as a byproduct of administration by the Government (at different levels), its instrumentalities, and its partners / agencies should be made a public good. The existence of such a system is termed as public access to information. Efforts to provide such an access were on internationally, ever since the first Right to Information (RTI) law was enacted by Sweden way back in 1766. Subsequent events at international level, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1979) endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and the laws made by different nations incorporating the principles thereof, recognized the importance of providing access to information to public. The UNGA (2019) also proclaimed September 28 as the International Day for Universal Access to Information.

2.        With this background and keeping in view the international developments, a law on the right to information was initially enacted under the NDA Government, which was subsequently replaced under the UPA Government as the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 (operational from 13^th October 2005). Thus, one can say that the RTI Act had the support of almost all the political parties in India.

3.        The Indian RTI law was acclaimed as one of the best laws on providing access to information, having enormous potential to alter the balance of power. But the law has been underutilized for a variety of reasons, such as weaknesses in its implementation and misconceptions about its applicability to private sector information. Unless correctives are applied by way of amendments to the Act and appropriate rulemaking to address these lacunae, people will lose interest in the RTI law and gradually the law will take a natural death.

4.        The internal monitoring mechanisms under the RTI Act, namely, section 25 of the Act and the annual reports of the Central Information Commission (CIC) and State level Information Commissions submitted from time to time as per the provisions of the Act mainly focus on the number of RTI requests received and on percentage of RTI queries responded, to assess the effectiveness of the law. At the international level, two items of information, namely, number of applications filed with institutions coming under the RTI Act (Indicator 16.6.3) and percentage of RTI queries responded (Indicator 16.6.2) get reported annually under Target No. 16.6 of Goal No. 16 of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (2015). For India, based on information received from the CIC, data on SDG indicators is being made available on Ministry of Statistics & PI website (mospi.gov.in). Besides, the annual Reports of the CIC also provide this information. The report for the year 2021-22 indicates an increasing trend in the number of RTI requests received by the Centre. The no. of requests in 2006-07 (first full year of implementation) was 1,71,398 and it was 14,21,226 during 2021-22. The percentage of RTI queries responded crossed 80%. The trends will be similar in the States as well. But measuring the success of RTI law in terms of these parameters may perhaps be appropriate and sufficient at the global level but not at national / State level. So long as we do not have information on the manner of implementation of the law and how the RTI requests made under the law improved the lives of citizens and governance, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of the law as well as its implementation.

5.        Two nation-wide assessments of the implementation of the RTI Act done in 2008-09 inter alia found that:

• awareness about the Act was very low, especially in rural areas and among women;
• there were cases of harassment, physical attacks and threats faced by RTI applicants;
• in case of pro-active disclosure, although public authorities should go much beyond the minimum required by the law, but they are not even meeting the minimum requirements; and
• records management has been very poor as most of the public authorities do not have resources, manpower or even space to organize their records in a manner that would allow effective retrieval of information.

6.        The main recommendations emerging from the afore-mentioned assessments are given below in brief:

7.        As in most countries, in India also information disclosed under proactive disclosure provisions is either incomplete or outdated. Section 4 (2) of the RTI Act states that the public will have minimum resort to the use of the Act to obtain information if each public authority provides as much information as possible suo motu. Thus, effective implementation of the Act is expected to result in the reduction of RTI requests. The very fact that the number of RTI requests is showing an increasing trend year after year is an indication to prove that something is going wrong or is inadequate in the implementation of section 4. The scheme under Section 4 enhances transparency, promotes better records management, and improves institutional memory in the offices of PAs, which fact, unfortunately, is not being realised by most of the PAs.

8.        Recognising the fact that the quality and quantity of proactive disclosure is not up to the desired level, the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) constituted a Task Force on Suo motu Disclosures which submitted its report on 30-08-2011. The Task Force recommended certain items to be included for suo motu disclosure under the scheme of Section 4 (1) (b) by framing of suitable rules. The DOPT, instead of framing rules, chose to issue an executive order, vide Office Memorandum (OM) no. 1/6/2011-IR dated 15^th April 2013 (not reproduced here) based on the report of the Task Force.

9.        The DOPT’s OM dated 15^th April 2013 prescribed additional items for pro-active disclosure, detailing some of the existing items given in section 4 (1) (b) and guidelines for digital publication. In the OM, the DOPT desired that each Ministry / PA shall operationalize the guidelines within a period of 6 months and submit Action Taken Report (ATR) to the DOPT and CIC. The DOPT also prescribed that each Ministry / PA should get its proactive disclosure package annually audited by a third party, to cover compliance and adequacy of the items included in the package. The DOPT laid down that CIC should examine the third-party audit reports and offer advice / recommendations to the concerned Ministries / PAs and that the CIC should carry out sample audit of a few Ministries/ PAs every year. The DOPT also prescribed that all Ministries / Departments should include a chapter on the RTI Act in their Annual Reports submitted to the Parliament duly providing details about compliance with proactive disclosure guidelines. The DOPT OM may be applicable and binding to Central Ministries / Departments and the CIC, but not to the States. It neither imposes any statutory duty to any office even at the Centre to affect improvements suggested in the OM nor does it give a statutory right to citizens to obtain information on the additional items suggested thereof. Although some of the Ministries / Departments are not following these guidelines, there is nobody to question them as of now.

10.      Seeking information about the private sector under the RTI Act has been controversial and often misconceived. In fact, the private sector, and its involvement in progress or otherwise of society has been the concern of the framers of the Constitution and subsequent law makers. Immediately after attaining independence, India chose mixed economy. Mixed economy means co-existence of private ownership and State / public ownership of the means of production. In addition to its own role, the State also exercised a regulatory role over the private sector in terms of various types of controls. The controls have been mainly of the nature of licensing, price controls, controls on foreign trade, controls on investments, public distribution system, labour policies etc. Other types of controls in terms of supportive measures, such as subsidies and investments in irrigation and infrastructure, have also been exercised.

11.      The concerns of the framers of the Constitution about the private sector would be known from the Directive Principles of State Policy (Part-IV, articles 36 to 51 of the Constitution). Till the 1990s, these concerns took the shape of license raj and control regime. There was a change in the thinking of the Government in the 1990s, which has sown seeds for an altogether different regime, popularly known as the Liberalisation, Privitasation and Globalisation (LPG) regime.

12.      Under the LPG regime, most of the controls on the private sector were replaced by decontrols in different ways. That was also the time when the Government was worried about its employment size, and recurring salary and pensionary liabilities in its establishment, which led to outsourcing of different activities more often, despite huge expenditures. People at the helm of affairs in the Government felt that everything need not be done by the Government or in the Government and some of the activities may be outsourced, as this was the only way by which the selected activities could be completed without increasing the employment size of the establishment. Moreover, this model was chosen because it involved only a one-time expenditure. Even in informal conversations among Government officers during their leisure time those days, the topic of outsourcing was invariably taking rounds to demonstrate one-up efficiency. During that time when a friend asked me, as to what were the activities outsourced by me, I had to quip that I could only outsource my morning walk. The practice of outsourcing partly took the shape of public private partnership (PPP) gradually, in which selected activities were carried out jointly by the Government and private sector enterprise(s). In PPPs, sometimes the participating private enterprise may be licensed or authorised to collect toll tax or other revenue from beneficiaries/ public. In a way, PPP is also outsourcing, not wholly but in part. Thus, one cannot say that only public bodies are important and that it is not important to fix the accountability of private bodies. The RTI Act, 2005 was enacted after extensive deliberations, duly keeping in view the role of the private sector. Relevant provisions of the Act which support this view are analyzed in the following paragraphs.

13.      As per its preamble, the RTI Act is intended to provide citizens, as a matter of right, information which is under the control of public authorities (PAs) to promote transparency and accountability. The word “control” in the preamble includes all kinds of controls exercised by Government on private sector and information which gets generated in that process falls within the ambit of the RTI Act. The phrase “information which is under the control of PAs” as given in the preamble has been further clarified in the definition of “information” given under section 2 (f) of the Act. It includes any material in any form relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force. Thus, information relating to private sector can be accessed by the concerned Government office in different situations, such as while exercising of regulatory control, as in the case of the Factories Act, the Companies Act, and labour laws etc.,, while financing, and while entering contract for any public work or service (outsourcing and PPPs), and information generated in all such situations falls within the ambit of RTI Act.

14.      Section 2 (h) of the Act, which provides for the definition of “public authority”, is wide enough to include (i) any body owned, controlled or substantially financed and (ii) any non-Government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government. The phrase “appropriate Government” used in section 2 (h) means the Central Government or the State Government as defined in section 2 (a). The words “substantially financed” have been subjected to judicial scrutiny in a catena of cases, but final clarity seems to have not been achieved yet, as the judgements put together do not give a clue to classify what is substantially financed and what is not. In my view, the word “substantially” is redundant in the provision, because whatever or whenever financing is done by the Government, it cannot be otherwise. In any case, section 2 (h) indicates all kinds of controls, PPPs, outsourcing situations, licensing, and indirect financing such as tax concessions, subsidies, and assigning land at concessional rates for running any public service (school, hospital etc.). All these are covered under the RTI Act and information in respect of such situations needs to be provided when sought or suo motu.

15.      Judicial interpretation by the CIC and courts seems to be supporting the view that information in respect of private entities under the control of or substantially financed by the appropriate Government needs to be furnished by the concerned Government Department when sought. But in my view, the plain reading of section 2 (h) indicates that such private entities qualify to be termed as PAs, in which case they have to appoint Information Officers and abide by the provisions of the RTI Act. But the question is whether such interpretation is tenable? In other words, can the Government exercise control over the private sector to the extent of forcing it to be bound by the RTI law? Similar questions arose in respect of extending reservations to the private sector. Be that as it may, the definition of “information” under section 2 (f), by stating that it also means information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force, appears to be clarifying to some extent that information on private sector can be obtained from the concerned public authority. This is a moot question and the position as of now is vague in respect of what can be considered as substantial financing and on who should furnish information about private entities controlled or substantially financed by the Government. Needless to emphasize that this kind of vagueness is against the spirit of the RTI Act and so it needs to be removed.

16.      Exemptions from disclosure of information have been provided under section 8 of the Act. They include information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect scientific or economic interests of the State, information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, information the disclosure of which would identify the source of information, and information which relates to personal information which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual. These exemptions are further subject to the doctrine of severability given in section 10 of the Act. Section 10 states that if an information contains two parts, one part which is exempt from disclosure and the other which is not exempt from disclosure, and if the part which is not exempt from disclosure can be severed, then that part can be disclosed. This is a very important provision. These provisions can be positively interpreted to handle situations where other laws prescribe certain confidentiality provisions. For example, under the Companies Act, the list of companies registered along with a few details about each company is available for public inspection / access. But, the annual returns, namely, the balance sheets and profit & loss accounts submitted by private companies, cannot be disclosed as per confidentiality provisions under the company law. But as per the RTI Act, the annual returns of private companies after aggregation (in a manner that information of an individual company cannot be ascertained even by the process of elimination) and after anonymization (removing details of identification of company) can be disseminated. As of now, this is perhaps not being attempted.

17.      It is highly improbable that the public, who are mostly unaware of the subtle nature of the above provisions, will use the RTI law to obtain information on the private sector. To address this issue, the provisions under section 4 of the RTI Act can be made use of. Under section 4 (1) (a), every public authority is required to maintain computersied records in a retrievable fashion (with cataloguing and indexing) in a network to facilitate access throughout the country. This has not been done so far. Neither the DOPT nor the Department of Electronics seem to have provided a dedicated network for this purpose till now. Under section 4 (1) (b) (vi), every public authority is required to publish a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control. In most of the cases, the statement published is either incomplete or outdated or without the details of private sector under its control. Under section 4 (1) (b) (xvii), the Central / State Governments have the power to make rules to prescribe items for pro-active disclosure over and above what is laid down under section 4. Had this been done, perhaps something about the private sector could have been prescribed. But so far, no rules have been drawn up for this purpose.

18.      With rapid globalization and deregulation, we have been witnessing structural changes which resulted in having public as well as private entities operating in some sectors, in having some sectors in which only private entities have been operating, and in cessation of public entities leaving the field wholly to private entities in some sectors. Viewing these changes with the eyes of public seeking information under the RTI law, one can sense an element of discrimination. While seeking information about one sector, one set of entities (public) is required to abide by the RTI law while the other set (private) is not required. A more intriguing situation, one can see, is when a sector covered under the RTI law till yesterday because of public entities operating in the sector suddenly goes out of the purview of the law because it has been taken over by the private sector. Thus, privatisation in a way leads to the public foregoing their right, to obtain information directly from the Units operating in the sector. Some of the activities, such as insurance, communication, air-travel, banking, power-distribution etc., which were once handled in the Government have been partly or wholly placed in the private sector. In such cases, the citizens who had a right for information when the activity was handled by the Government have lost their right when the same activity has been taken over by the private sector. This trend may continue in future with more and more privatisations taken up by the Government, which gradually render the public helpless in exercising their right to information.

19.      Due to de-licensing and de-regulation started in the early nineties and continuing now, the Government itself has lost avenues to obtain information from private enterprises. If the RTI Act does not cover the private sector, there would perhaps be no other solution available to the Government and the citizens. Another interesting feature is that the Government administers certain laws through the private sector. For example, in tax administration, some of the taxes (indirect taxes such as sales tax) are collected by private enterprises and remitted to the Government from time to time. In such cases, the citizens must have a right to get information from relevant records of private enterprises as to how much has been collected and how much has been remitted to the Government. Moreover, any record maintained on a regular basis by business enterprises is admissible as evidence under the Evidence Act. If such records are not covered under the RTI Act, the citizens would not be able to fight for their rights. It is necessary to find a solution to this problem. Perhaps, notifying certain sectors from the angle of public interest as important for the purpose of binding private entities in those sectors (similar to the logic applied in case of Essential Services Maintenance Act) under the RTI law may be a solution. Along with evolving a solution to this problem, it would be reasonable to expect that full use of the RTI Act would be facilitated to the public in respect of the private sector.

20.      In addition to the lacunae pointed above and those detailed by the Task Force, other shortcomings in the RTI Act, 2005 and in the process of its implementation are indicated below:

Annex. I

Statement of draft amendments to the Right to Information Act, 2005

1. (1) This Act may be called the Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2023.

(2) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

2. In the Right to Information, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), in sub-section (f) of section 2, the words “which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force” shall be substituted by the words “which can be accessed by a public authority in the exercise of its role and functions or under any other law for the time being in force”.

3.  In the principal Act, the words,

shall be substituted by the following words, namely: —

“in respect of its functions including its role while controlling or regulating or financing, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government, or licensing or giving subsidies and concessions to or outsourcing any of its activity to or partnering in any activity in public interest with or authorising toll tax or indirect tax or other revenue collections by or assigning land at concessional rates for running any public service such as school or hospital to, any private body or non-Government organisation;”

4. In the principal Act, in clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 4, the words “publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act” shall be substituted by the words “publish from time to time duly indicating the date as and when updating of information was carried out” and the words “and thereafter update these publications every year” appearing after sub-clause (xvii) shall be omitted.

5. In the principal Act, after clause (d) of sub-section (1) of section 4, the following clauses shall be inserted, namely: —

“(e) place relevant official details in public domain from time to time in respect of allocation, receipt and spending of funds or any misconception or any public scandal or any other matter about which public are concerned or likely to be concerned;

(f) publish from time to time the details of the manner and the purpose of regulating or exercising controls over private bodies and non-Government organisations and the information held by it in that process;

(g) publish from time to time the details of private bodies and non-Government organisations partnered with or to whom contracts were awarded for procurement of goods or services for any public purpose including the manner of surveillance over such bodies or organisations and the information held by it in the process of exercising such surveillance or otherwise;

(h) publish from time to time the details of private bodies and non-Government organisations who were either financed directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government or who were given license to provide any public service or who were assigned land at concessional rates for running a hospital or a school or any other public service establishment or who were given tax concessions or subsidies or concessions in any other form for producing or distributing or transmitting or selling goods or services for consumption, along with the manner in which it monitors such bodies and non-Government organisations to see whether the purpose for which the funds or concessions or land etc., were given is being served and the information held by it in the process;

(i) publish, from time to time, details of records held by it which can be disclosed only partly or at an aggregate level after suppressing personal information, in accordance with the provisions contained in section 10;

(j) publish, from time to time, the details of functions assigned to any private body or non-Government organisation including collection of any tax or revenue and the information held by it in respect of such assignments; and

(k) publish, from time to time, details of any comments or suggestions or grievances received from any person and the action taken thereof.”

6.  In the principal Act, after the Explanation below sub-section (4) of section 4, the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely: —

“(5) Every public authority shall get the suo motu dissemination details required to be complied by it under this section audited by an agency or person authorised by the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, at such points of time for such periods as may be determined by the Commission from time to time and forward the audit report along with its report on the action taken on the points raised in the audit report to the Commission.”

7.  In the principal Act, below sub-section (2) of section 6, the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely: —

“(2a) Where an application is made to a public authority requesting for an information to be furnished free of cost for the reason that the information falls within the ambit of suo motu disclosures although not disclosed suo motu under sub-section (1) of section 4 and if the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, of the concerned public authority is in agreement with the claim, then the information shall be furnished free of cost.

(2b) If the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, of the concerned public authority is not in agreement with the claim for furnishing information free of cost under sub-section (2a), the person requesting for information may appeal in accordance with the provisions contained in sub-section (1) of section 19.”

8.  In the principal Act, after sub-section (9) in section 7, the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely: —

“(10) Subject to the provisions contained in sections 8, 9 and 10, the appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare any economic activity to be important for the purposes of this Act and upon doing so, all the establishments engaged in the economic activity shall make such arrangements to furnish information for such period as may be specified in the notification.”

9.  In the principal Act, in sub-section (2) of section 20, the words “or obstructed in any manner in furnishing the information” shall be omitted.

10.  In the principal Act, in section 20, after sub-section (2), the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely: —

“(3)  Where the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, at the time of deciding any complaint received in accordance with the provisions contained in section 18 of this Act, alleging interference or hindrance or obstruction or harassment or physical attack or threat or causing any such acts  by any employee of a public authority in the exercise of right to access any information or record by any person, and after such inquiry, as may be necessary, found the employee guilty of committing such an offence shall censure the employee and impose a penalty not more than twenty-five thousand rupees to him.

(4)  Where, on receipt of a complaint made to it or otherwise, the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, has reason to believe that a public authority has not complied with its direction or recommendation made in accordance with the provisions of this Act or without lawful excuse failed to perform any duty or obligation assigned to it under this Act or the rules made thereunder, the Commission may, after giving the public authority or an officer representing it an opportunity of being heard and holding an inquiry in such manner, as may be necessary, for reasons to be recorded in writing, warn, admonish or censure the public authority.”

11.  In the principal Act, after section 20, the following section shall be inserted, namely: —

“20A. Transparency audit.— (1) The Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, shall, from time to time, authorise a panel of agencies or persons for conducting audit in the office of any public authority in accordance with the provisions contained in sub-section (5) of section 4 of this Act as and when sought by such authority, covering such details as may be prescribed for such fee as may be determined by the Commission.

(2) The Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, shall, release the names of public authorities to be audited in accordance with the provisions contained in sub-section (1) in each financial year well before the commencement of the financial year.

(3) On the basis of audit report and the report on action taken on the points raised in the audit report submitted to it by any public authority in accordance with the provisions contained in sub-section (5) of section 4, if it appears to the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, that the practice of the public authority in relation to the exercise of its functions under this Act does not conform with the provisions or spirit of this Act or the rules made thereunder, the Commission may issue such directions, as may be necessary, to the public authority for improving its compliance within such time as may be determined by the Commission.

(4) On receipt of any direction of the Commission under sub-section (3), the public authority shall submit a report to the Commission on action taken by it in accordance with the direction.”

12. In the principal Act, section 25 shall be substituted by the following section, namely: —

“25. Monitoring and reporting.— (1) The Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, shall monitor compliance of public authorities to the provisions of this Act, the rules made thereunder and the directions or recommendations issued from time to time by the Commission or an agency or person after conducting audit under section 20A.

(2) Each Ministry or Department shall, in relation to the public authorities and offices within their jurisdiction, collect and provide by 31^st May every year to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, information for the previous financial year in such form and covering such details as may be prescribed.

(3) On the basis of reports received under sub-section (2) and its own information, the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, shall, prepare and submit every year an annual report for the previous financial year on the implementation of the provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder during that year to the appropriate Government.

(4) On receipt of the annual report under sub-section (3), the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, shall, as soon as practicable, cause a copy of the report of the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, along with a memorandum of action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations of the Commission and the reasons for non-acceptance of the recommendations, if any, to be laid before each House of Parliament or, as the case may be, before each House of the State Legislature, where there are two Houses, and where there is one House of the State Legislature before that House.”

13.  In the principal Act, after sub-section (4) of section 26, the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely: —

“(5) The Central Government in collaboration with State Governments shall establish and update, from time to time, a computerised network all over the country to provide space to public authorities to upload records, as required under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 4 of this Act, to enable user friendly access to public to such records free of cost.”

14. In the principal Act, the clauses under sub-section (2) of section 27 shall be substituted by the following clauses, namely: —

“(a) the details to be included for suo motu disclosure under sub-clause (xvii) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 4;

(b) the cost of the medium or print cost price of the materials to be disseminated under subsection (4) of section 4;

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

(d) the fee payable under sub-sections (1) and (5) of section 7;

(e) 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;

(f) 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;

(g) the salaries and allowances payable to and the terms and conditions of service of the officers and other employees under sub-section (6) of section 13 and sub-section (6) of section 16;

(h) the procedure to be adopted by the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, in deciding the appeals under sub-section (10) of section 19;

(i) the details to be covered in audit conducted under sub-section (1) of section 20A;

(j) the information to be furnished to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, under sub-section (2) of section 25; and

(k) any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed.”

Annex. II

G.S.R. ___ (E). — In exercise of the powers conferred by clauses (a), (i) and (j) of sub-section (2) of section 27 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely: —

 1. Short title and commencement. — (1) These rules may be called the Right to Information Rules, 2023.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Definitions. — (1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires —

(a) “Act” means the Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005);

(b) “metadata” in respect of any data means any details which help in understanding the use of the data, such as how the data was collected or prepared, or definitions of various components in the data or methodology used in collecting or preparing data, or the security and confidentiality provisions in respect of the data;

(c) “outsourcing” means making use of the services of a private service provider for any public purpose;

(d) “personal information” means any information, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about a person whose identity can reasonably be ascertained from such information;

(e) “Schedule” means a Schedule appended to these rules; and

(f) “section” means a section of the Act.

(2) Words and expressions used herein but not defined herein shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Act.

3. Details of records management. — (1)Every public authority shall maintain, in electronic form, the details of physical records, electronic records including datasets and databases, library and other reference material, if any, held by it, in accordance with the format given in Schedule-I.

(2) The Schedule-I prepared in electronic form in accordance with the provisions contained in sub-rule (1) shall be electronically updated by each public authority as soon as possible when new records are added, or existing records are weeded out or removed or destroyed in accordance with their retention schedule.

4. Details of suo motu disclosure. —  (1) Subject to the provisions contained in sections 8, 9 and 10 of the Act, every public authority shall publish, from time to time, information in the format given in Schedule-II and update it at least once a year.

(2) Every Ministry or Department shall facilitate uploading in its website information published in Schedule-I and Schedule-II from time to time.

5. Particulars to be seen in audit. — (1) On being asked by a public authority, an agency or person authorised under sub-section (1) of section 20A shall conduct audit and give its report to the public authority pointing out deficiencies and suggesting corrective steps, if any, in respect of —

(a) compliance with the suo motu disclosure provisions given under rule 4 including adequacy of items and status of updating information thereof;

(b) compliance with specific directions, if any, of the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be;

(c) compliance with pending actionable points, if any, in previous audit reports conducted under this rule; and

(d) such other details which are required to be complied with under the Act as may be specified by the Commission, from time to time and other types of information, if any, which in the opinion of the agency or person conducting audit needs to be included in suo motu disclosure.

(2) The public authority on receipt of a report under sub-rule (1) shall take appropriate action within three months and prepare its report on the action taken or proposed to be taken and on reasons why action was not taken or proposed not to be taken.

(3) The public authority shall forward the audit report received under sub-rule (1) and its report prepared under sub-rule (2) to the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be.

(4) The Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, on receipt of reports under sub-rule (3) shall within a period of six months give directions to the public authority on further action, if any, to be taken by it to conform its practices to the provisions of the Act and the rules made thereunder.

6. Details to be furnished in annual reports. — (1) Each Ministry or Department shall, in relation to the public authorities and other offices under its administrative control, collect and furnish latest by 31^st day of May every year information pertaining to previous financial year in the format given in Schedule-III to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, for facilitating preparation of report by the Commission as required under section 25 of the Act.

(2) The appropriate Government may facilitate on-line submission of Schedule-III required under sub-rule (1).

(3) The Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, may after examining the report received under sub-rule (1) or sub-rule (2) ask for any additional information in respect of any public authority from the concerned Ministry or Department and the Ministry or Department shall furnish the information sought.

(4) The Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, shall, after receiving information under sub-rules (1) and (2), prepare its annual report every year for the previous financial year for submission to the appropriate Government as required under sub-section (3) of section 25 of the Act.

1. Details of physical records including file or other reference material:

S. No.	Name of physical record including file or other reference material	Brief description of contents	No. of pages	Catalogue No.	Will be retained up to (year)
1.
2.
..
..

2. Details of electronic records including datasets and databases:

S. No.	Name of electronic record or dataset or database	Volume (in kilobytes or megabytes or gigabytes or terabytes)	Brief description of contents	Metadata link	Limitations, if any, in providing access and reasons thereof
1.
2.
..
..

3. Details of library:

Name and address of the public authority:                                Date of last updating:

(1) Names and address of other offices whose information is also included:

(2) Particulars of organisation, functions and duties:

(3) (i) Details of private bodies and non-Government organisations who are controlled or regulated or financed directly or indirectly by providing Government funds or who were given license to provide any public service or who were assigned land at concessional rates for running a hospital or a school or any other public service establishment or who were given tax concessions or subsidies or concessions in any other form for producing or distributing or transmitting or selling goods or services for consumption, along with the manner in which monitoring is done over such bodies and non-Government organisations to see whether the purpose for which the funds or concessions or land etc., were given is being served and the information held in the process of exercising such monitoring:

(4) Powers and duties of officers and other employees including those in respect of inspections or surveillance, if any, over private bodies, and non-Government organisations:

(5) Procedure followed in decision-making process, including channels of supervision and accountability:

(6) Norms for discharge of functions including timelines:

(7) Acts, Rules, gazette notifications, regulations, instructions, manuals and other records, decision-making processes, and general orders pertaining to its procedures, held or under control or used by employees for discharging various functions, and other documents which may be of reference value or useful to citizens:

(8) Statement of categories of documents that are held or under control including the particulars of private bodies and non-Government organisations controlled or financed:

(9) Particulars of arrangements for consultation with members of the public:

(10) Information on views or comments or suggestions or grievances received from public (for the previous financial year till the date of last updating):

S. No.	Name of person from whom views or comments or suggestions or grievances received	Date of receipt	Views or comments or suggestions or grievances	Date when replied	Reply furnished
1
2
…

(11) Names of boards, councils, committees or other bodies constituted including such bodies constituted by others (e.g. Parliamentary Standing Committees, Human Rights Commission, National Statistical Commission etc.) which have tendered advice:

(12) Manner in which public can watch or participate in the meetings of boards, councils, committees, and other bodies etc., mentioned in (11), in case it is permitted:

(13) Details of minutes of meetings of boards, councils, committees, and other bodies etc., mentioned in (11), which are accessible for public and reasons in case any of them are not accessible:

(14) Details of action taken from time to time on the advice received from boards, councils, committees, and other bodies etc., mentioned in (11), and status of pendency (enclose a separate sheet where necessary):

(16) Number of contractual employees and jobs assigned to them:

(17) Monthly remuneration details of different grades of officers, other employees and contractual employees, and the system of compensation as provided in the relevant regulations (enclose a separate sheet where necessary):

(18) Details of budgetary and extrabudgetary allocations made to it and other agencies or private bodies or non-Governments organisations, including subsidies and other concessions (in cash or kind or both):

(21) Details of subsidy programmes, the manner of their execution, amounts allocated and disbursed for each programme, and details of beneficiaries of such programmes (enclose a separate sheet where necessary):

(22) Details, if any, of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations, including authorisations for collecting toll tax or indirect tax or other revenues and assigning land at concessional rates for running any public service such as school or hospital:

(23) Details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form:

(24) Details of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use:

(25) Names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers:

(26) Facts relating to important policies or decisions which affect public:

(27) Number of administrative or quasi-judicial decisions in which reasons were furnished to affected persons and the number of such decisions, where reasons were not given and why?:

(28) Details of allocation, receipt and spending of funds from time to time including clarifications on any misconception or public scandal or any other matter about which public are concerned or likely to be concerned:

(29) Details of private bodies and non-Government organisations partnered with or awarded contracts for procurement of goods or services for any public purpose including the manner of surveillance over such bodies or organisations and the information held in the process of exercising such surveillance:

(30) Details of records held which can be disclosed only partly or at aggregate level after suppressing personal information, in accordance with the provisions contained in section 10 of the Act:

(31) Details of functions assigned or entrusted on contract basis to any private body or non-Government organisation including collection of any tax or revenue and the information held in respect of such assignments:

(32) Details of points raised in audit reports and action taken thereof including audit objections pending for clearance by audit parties:

(33) Details of requests for information received and appeals made under the Act and replies furnished thereof:

(34) Guidelines for web-based publication of information for suo motu disclosure:

(35) Details of entitlements to citizens and transactions between the citizen and government which are made available through computer-based interface and the manner in which one could avail such facilities:

(36) Details of sanctions and writing off losses:

(37) Details of major achievements:

(38) Details of decentralisation of functions and delegation of powers:

(39) Details of electronic service delivery, if any, made available:

(40) Details of information available but is wholly exempt from disclosure under section 8:

(41) Details of information available of which only a part can be disclosed under section 10 either at individual record level or at a level of appropriate aggregation:

(42) Details of retention schedule for different types of records:

(43) Details of any other matter which was considered appropriate for suo motu disclosure on the basis of requests for information received under the Act:

(44) Details of any other matter which is required to be placed in public domain:

Name of Ministry / Department: _________________________; Financial year: ______

(1) Names and addresses of public authorities under its jurisdiction:

(2) Names and addresses of public authorities under its jurisdiction whose details are not included in this report:

(3) Names and addresses of offices which are not by themselves declared as public authorities, but included under the jurisdiction of other offices which were declared as public authorities:

(4) Out of (3) above, no. of offices for which Assistant Public Information Officers were not designated as required under sub-section (2) of section 5 of the Act:

(5) No. of Public Information Officers designated under sub-section (1) of section 5:

(6) No. of Assistant Public Information Officers designated under sub-section (2) of section 5:

(7) No. of First Appellate Authorities designated under sub-section (1) of section 19:

(8) Number of public authorities audited during the financial year:

(9) Number of pending points in audit reports along with the names of concerned public authorities:

(10) Number of requests for information pending with public authorities including those transferred to it by other public authorities and excluding those transferred by it to other public authorities, under sub-section (3) of section 6, at the beginning of the financial year:

(11) Number of requests for information received by public authorities including those transferred to it by other public authorities and excluding those transferred by it to other public authorities, under sub-section (3) of section 6, during the financial year:

(12) Out of (11) above, no. of requests for which reasonable assistance was rendered by Public Information Officer or other employee, as per proviso under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 6 or under sub-section (4) of section 7 of the Act:

(13) Number of requests for information pending with public authorities including those transferred to it by other public authorities and excluding those transferred by it to other public authorities, under sub-section (3) of section 6, at the close of the financial year:

(14) Number of applications for which information was provided on remittance of fee without going for appeal:

(15) Number of applications in which applicants went for first appeal and information was provided on the basis of decision taken thereof:

(16) Number of applications in which applicants went for second appeal and information was provided on the basis of decision taken thereof:

(17) Number of applications in which information was provided on the basis of verdict of a court:

(18) Number of applications for which information was provided free of cost either because the applicants were of below poverty line status as per the proviso under sub-section (5) of section 7 or because of delay in furnishing information as per sub-section (6) of section 7 or because the information sought falls within the ambit of suo motu disclosure under sub-section (2a) of section 6:

(19) Details of type of information furnished:

Information furnished related to (1)	No. of requests for which information was furnished during the year (2)	Out of (2), No. of requests which can be avoided by including relevant details under suo motu disclosure? (3)
Boards, Commissions and Committees constituted
Service matters and disciplinary cases of employees
Contracts including Public Private Partnerships
Records maintenance including electronic data or files
Budgetary and extra-budgetary receipts and disbursements

(20) Number of applications rejected finally and the reasons thereof:

Provision under the Act under which information was finally rejected	No. of applications rejected
8 (a) – scientific or economic interests of the State
8 (a) – other reasons
8 (b)
8 (c)
8 (d)
8 (e)
8 (f)
8 (g)
8 (h)
8 (i)
8 (j)
9
11
24
Other reasons
Total no. of applications rejected

(22) No. of complaints for which inquiries were conducted under section 18 and disposed off and no. of complaints pending (to be filled by Commission):

(23) No. of first appeals disposed off under section 19 and no. pending:

(24) No. of second appeals disposed off under section 19 and no. pending:

(25) No. of court cases on RTI issues pending:

(26) No. of cases in which penalties were imposed under clause (c) of sub-section (8) of section 19 or section 20 or any loss compensated under clause (b) of sub-section (8) of section 19:

(27) Amount (in Rs.) collected under the cases reported in (23):

(28) Details of disciplinary cases under sub-section (2) of section 20:

No. of cases pending at the beginning of the year	No. of cases recommended during the year	No. of cases disposed off during the year	No. of cases pending at the close of the year
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4) = (1) + (2) – (3)