RTI amendment: No plausible reason given

This is very unfortunate. An amendment has been brought in to a matter concerning citizen rights without any public consultation. No plausible reason has been given, and only implication one can draw is they want control over information commissioners. If commissioners' rank is downgraded, their authority will go down, hampering RTI implementation. Their rank is now equivalent to Supreme Court judge or Central Election Commissioners (CECs).

They have been saying that while Election Commissioner's post is constitutional, information commission is a statutory body and both cannot be equated. The other is that when CICs are equal to SC judges, their orders are subject to appeals before high courts.

The argument is facetious because NHRC, NGT and many such tribunals are not bodies envisaged in the Constitution but their heads are given the same status as the CEC. The orders of President, Prime Minister, Governors and CECs are also challenged under writ jurisdiction before High Court. So will it be argued that all these positions must be downgraded?.

Shailesh Gandhi, former Central Information Commissioner