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.