Touted as the "people's law" to bring about transparency in government working, RTI staggered through 2007 as the Centre refused to declassify files.
NEW DELHI: Touted as the "people's law" to bring about transparency in government working, RTI staggered through 2007 as the Centre refused to declassify files and clung on to the pre-Independence Official Secrets Act.
Right To Information Act initiated to dig out information far kept away from the public domain, however, made headway in that Central Information Commission extended its ambit to institutions affecting the economy and Indian missions abroad.
Stock exchanges and corporates came under the RTI scanner and CIC received many applications from mobile operators and GSM service providers on licencing and spectrum allocation.
The CBI lost out on its demand for exclusion from the transparency law and drew flak from CIC for irregular servicing and not keeping a list of cases.
Taking refuge in the law, the bureaucracy used it for redressal of personal grievances. Senior IFS officer Veena Sikri invoked RTI to question Shivshankar Menon's appointment as Foreign Secretary and Harish Kumar Dogra to challenge his recall as High Commissioner to New Zealand.
The tussle between the Centre and CIC, which began in 2006 on the issue of the proposed amendments, continued through 2007 over file notings.
CIC chief Wajahat Habibullah had the last word about the Centre being guarded about the file notings, saying "till amendments are brought into the act, notings are very much part of information to be disclosed".
The fag end of the year saw the CIC order a search for the records of drafting of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Independence day speech in 2002.
Bihar showed the country the way by allowing citizens to file RTI queries through telephone.
The law also sprang surprises for the judiciary when CIC allowed disclosure of file notings on elevation of Vijender Jain as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, but a full commission bench put proceedings of courts and tribunals beyond RTI purview.
Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh termed it the "people's law", an inquiry based on an RTI query acknowledged misappropriation of disaster relief from the PM's National Relief Fund.
The Centre initiated the implementation process of RTI legislation but rejected the Second Administrative Reforms Commission's recommendation for scrapping the 84-year-old Official Secrets Act, contradicting its very provisions.
The RTI was used to obtain details of safety tests for GM crops and getting a probe ordered into the mysterious death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose despite the Union Home Ministry's stand that it could cause unrest in certain parts of the country.
The student community was disappointed with the CIC for not allowing disclosure of examination answer sheets.
It said the transparency law could not be used as a guise for questioning government policies, details disclosed should not affect the nation's sovereignty and denied information on manpower planning of defence services and the fast-breeder nuclear reactor at Kalpakkam.
The CIC sought greater funds allocation for developing an effective structure and mooted integration of RTI framework with the National E-Governance Programme.
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