Private bodies should also be brought under the ambit of the right to information (RTI) Act, Bombay high court judge justice Dhananjay Chandrachud said on Monday.
Private bodies should also be brought under the ambit of the right to information (RTI) Act, Bombay high court judge justice Dhananjay Chandrachud said on Monday. “We cannot disempower ourselves, thinking that private bodies do not come under the purview of the Act.”
Celebrating four years of the sunshine act, RTI activists appealed that its scope be widened by including the private sector in the public services under it. “When the Act is for fighting corruption, why not have it for the private sector too?” Ashok Rawat, an activist, asked.
“Disinvestment and deregulation have seen the government handing over public services to private hands. Now, private players are just as important as the government. The RTI Act is not a code to give information, but a constitutional right of a person to know about something. Right to information is now beyond the scope of disclosure,” said Chandrachud.
Introduced in 1766 in Sweden, the RTI Act has been adopted in 85 countries with varied levels of implementation. Activists also complained about the roadblocks public information officers (PIOs) created in their attempt to scuttle information.
“The most common argument is that the information asked for does not come under the definition of the Act,” said Narayan Varma, a member of PCG, an NGO working to spread the RTI awareness.
“Unfortunately, bureaucrats themselves train PIOs how not to disclose information,” said Rawat. “One needs to understand that access to information is means to an end. This means should be eliminated as disclosure should be voluntary,” said Chandrachud.
“We are sensitising our officers. There is a need to institutionalise experience at the state level, just as it had been at the Centre by making Shailesh Gandhi the central information commissioner, so that there is a uniform pattern that will speed up the process of deliverance.”
Some NGOs, like Mahiti Adhikar Manch and PCGT, plan to set up a panel to ensure voluntary disclosure of information, which is part of the Act.
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