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TRANSPARENCY
RTI law turned on its head
A combination of intimidation and mindless application of the letter of the law threatens to dissuade citizens from putting the RTI Act to use. And politicians are only happy to offer solutions that further dilute the law's purpose. Suman Sahai and Swati Gola note examples from Chhatisgarh that point to the need for a program for rights literacy.

13 June 2006 - Recently, BBC News carried a feature reporting the prohibitive cost of obtaining information through the Right to Information (RTI) Act in India. A farmer in Chattisgarh who had asked for information on paddy purchases in his area was given a bill of Rs.1,82,000 for costs that were allegedly incurred for photocopying the official documents relating to the purchases. The documents filled an entire room. In another incident, a resident of Bilaspur district, Chattisgarh was told to pay Rs.75,000 for information he had requested on the positions available for schoolteachers.

The village council official of Bilaspur said that they did not have the money to provide information to people. In Chattisgarh, a person who demands information has to pay Rs.2 for every photocopied page of official documents. Authorities say that ever since the law was passed, the poor have risen to demand information from the government but the government does not have money to supply it. The Chief Minister of Chattisgarh has stated that well-to-do people are using the poor to get information free from the government (the fees are waived for the poor below the poverty line). He urged that the law be changed to allow the officials to examine whether the requested information is useful for the person asking for it.

It is not hard to see that the applicant was seeking the status and availability of the positions for schoolteachers. What, then, motivated him to photocopy the application forms of 9000 candidates, and bill the petitioner for this mindless act?  •  Pune's draft plan under a cloud  •  Can I have my answer papers?

These incidents should not have happened. They are geared to defeat the purpose of the RTI Act, which is essentially to introduce transparency in governance and to check corruption. These actions can be attributed to one of two reasons. The first, a deliberate attempt to intimidate those seeking information so that misdeeds and corruptions are not exposed. The second, which is far more likely: that there is lack of familiarity with the law and no application of mind to the provisions of law in order to enable people to access information.

• A huge bill has been handed over to a poor farmer whereas it is clearly provided under proviso to S. 7 (6) of RI Act that the fee shall be reasonable and information should be provided for free to persons who are living below the poverty line. Thus the act of State Public Information Officer is in clear contravention of the provisions of the law.

• The information officer is required under S. 7(3) of the RTI Act to intimate the applicant how much it will cost to prove the information alongwith the calculations made to arrive at the amount. He is further required to inform the applicant of his/her right to review the decision regarding the amount of fees charged or the form of access provided as well as the particulars of the appellate authority. Instead of applying his mind, the SPIO has handed over an enormous bill running into lakhs of rupees to a poor farmer. This is in clear violation of the legal provision.

• The law gives ample discretion to the Central or State Public Information Officer under S. 7(9) to assess whether the form in which the information is sought would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority. Accordingly the SPIO should have sought clarification from the applicant as to what particular information he/she wished to have. He should have facilitated the applicant's request for information and intervened if the information sought was unclear and would result in bulk copying of documents. Instead of providing a stack of photocopies without application of mind to its relevance and which resulted in avoidable expenditure of public resources, the applicant should have been guided and informed of the expenditure and be given the alternative to inspect the files and file notings and then take the photocopies of only the most relevant portions.

• The claim of the official that the government has no money to provide the information is inadmissible and holds no ground. The cost of photocopying an official document is charged at Rs2/- page, which is not a reasonable amount. Photocopy machines are already installed in government departments and can be used at nominal cost. Even if the photocopying is done at a commercial establishment, the costs vary from 50-75 paise per page at the most.

The proposal of the Chattisgarh government to seek changes in the RTI Act that will allow officials to determine whether the information sought is 'useful' to the applicant is absurd, and could be judged to be malafide. The RTI Act was legislated after a great deal of debate and discussion within civil society and with officials and government departments. The result is a consensus legislation, which has at its core good governance to enable development from the grassroots up in a functional democracy. Instead of trying to derail the Act, the Chattisgarh government would do well to educate itself and train its officials to interpret and implement the law so as to achieve its goal.

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Providing a stack of non-relevant information and handing over a bill close to two lakh rupees is not only a waste of public resources but appears to be a tactic to deny information and deter others from seeking information from the government. If the intention of the government official was infact to provide relevant information, it is not hard to see that the applicant was seeking the status and availability of the positions for schoolteachers. What, then, motivated him to photocopy the application forms of 9000 candidates for the post, and bill the petitioner for this mindless act?

The objective of the RTI Act is to improve transparency in public working but the incidents mentioned above reveal the resistance of the bureaucracy to open their functioning to scrutiny. They are unwilling to provide information, and when they have to they resort to creating hurdles by senseless application of provisions of the Act. These incidents underline the great need for a public information campaign to engender a rights literacy program so that the public can become aware of its rights and have full knowledge of the legal provisions through which it can exercise its rights. ⊕

Suman Sahai and Swati Gola
13 Jun 2006

Dr. Suman Sahai is President of Gene Campaign, based in Delhi. Swati Gola is a researcher, also at Gene Campaign.

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Comments (3)

• Posted by Shanthu Shantharam,

  The article hits thr problem right on, where it hurts the spirit and intent of the law. The poor farmer who was given that huge photocopying bill must take it to the court and show it to the judge and the official(s) right up to the Chief Information Officer and the Chief Minister must be penalised, and someone should even be jailed for harassing the public. There is no doubt the babudom is hell bent on undermining the RTI and render it ineffective to escape accountability.

• Posted by Uttam Laisram,

  I work in a Government Department. I have with me an RTI application to provide copies of all publications, copies of Annual Reports of the last 22(twenty two) years of the Department and a host of other documents, including maps etc. The applicant has requested that the copies of the documents may be provided to him free of cost, as he is in the Below Poverty Line category. The time and money to be spent to provide him this information will be gigantic, to say the least, and we had been quite confused as to how to handle the case. I can only imagine what will happen if there are a dozen such similar RTI applications from BPL applicants asking for voluminous documents covering 22 years at a time.

  My submission is that a BPL applicant may be provided the copies of documents at a reduced rate, and not free of cost, so that he does not go trigger-happy and ask for all and sundry information, which would cost time and money to the Govt. office unnecessarily. He could also have malicious intent in asking for such gigantic volume of documents. Is it permissible under RTI to offer the BPL applicant to read the documents at the office instead of providing copies to him free of cost?

• Posted by Vidya,

  When a law is enacted, it will ofcourse have some unwanted effects too (angry public might harass govt. officials). But that doesnt mean we have to cover up this small hole, by creating a much bigger hole (letting govt. decide which application is legitimate) through which the entire purpose of that law is undermined.

  I think certain ammendments are called for - limiting the amount of information at a time and limiting the number of applications per citizen per year. However, all these should be hard-coded in such a way that no one should be able to misuse the law.

  Also, any law will have its side-effects exaggerated during the initial time. As the law settles in, the public as well as the govt will figure out a way of using it appropriately, the way it was meant to be used.

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