Information Commission Under RTI Act, 2005 : An Appraisal (Paper)

Abstract :

Right to Information Act (RTI) a powerful law enacted in year 2005 for better governance in the country. RTI law is backed by Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India which talks about freedom of speech and expression. For proper usage of this right one should have proper information about the Public Authority. Public Authority carries wider meaning than only government. There are two objectives of RTI Act, 2005, one is to bring transparency and accountability in governance and other one is to setting up of Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commission (SIC) to hear appeals and complaints. There are lot of peculiarities in working of CIC and various SICs. Some state commissions are performing exceptionally well whereas some are lagging behind. Most of the state information commission offices are facing challenges in terms of vacancies which ultimately leading to backlog of appeals and complaints. Second biggest challenge is appointment of efficient Information Commissioners who can dispose cases in effective way and in timely manner. There are Information Commissioners who have given landmarks orders and disposed off large number of cases. Thus we can see the role of information commissioner is crucial for successful implementation of RTI Act, 2005.

Present paper will critically analyze working of Information Commission at central and state level alongwith some important orders delivered by CIC and SIC.