Muzamil Rashid
Introduction: A presumptive right to access to official information, qualified by exemptions and subject to independent adjudication by a third party. Over hundred countries around the world have implemented some form of information legislation, Sweden’s Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 is the oldest in world. It is referred to as Freedom of Information in some countries like Australia, Norway, United States, also called as Access to information or documents laws in Canada, Columbia and Denmark and a more recent trend starting with india in 2005 has been to use the title RTI laws, reflecting the regulation of rti as a human right. The scope and its application vary from country to country. Information disclosure in india is restricted by the official secrets act 1923 and various other special laws which the new RTI Act relaxes. RTI Act provides access to information held by public authorities. It codifies a fundamental right of the citizen of India. RTI has proven to be very useful in the country as well as in our state.
The RTI act was passed by Parliament on 15th of June, 2005 and came into force on 12th of October, 2005. However, J&K RTI Act, 2009 come in force on 20th of March, 2009, repealing J&K RTI Act, 2004 and J&K RTI Amendment Act, 2008.
Need of RTI: RTI act fosters an openness and transparency in government which is vital for our society and leads to trust between the government and the public. RTI act empowers the citizen, promote transparency and accountability in the working of government, contain corruption and make our democracy work for the people in real sense. RTI provides enjoyment of all human rights, recognized rights and provides freedom to claim other rights as well.
Power of RTI: RTI Act boasted unbreakable barriers between ruler and ruled. Since it came to the country, Right to Information act has helped attain better transparency and more accountability in governance by empowering citizens to ask public officials for information. If we talk about our own state there are many success stories of RTI, that reinforce our faith in democracy and good government. It was beyond the imagination of the ordinary folk raised in a cloistered environment of fear and secrecy that they could actually call for and obtain records of decisions that critically impacted their lives.
Procedure for RTI: Procedure of filing RTI Application is simple and easy. Some of the basic steps are jotted down here:
1. Apply in writing in English or Urdu or in official language of the area, to the PIO (Public Information Officer), specify the particulars of the information sought for.
2. Reason for seeking information are not required to be given.
3. Pay fee as may be prescribed if not belonging to poverty line category. In J&K one can make use of Indian Postal Order worth Rs. 10 as initial application fee or Cash payment or other ways as mentioned in RTI Rules of 2012.
Conclusion: By using the Right to Information Act, India as well as J&K has moved from an opaque and arbitrary system of government to the beginning of an era where there will be greater transparency and to a system where the citizen will be empowered and the true center of power. By enacting this law government has taken a big as well as significant step towards real Swaraj. The real Swaraj is when every citizen will have access to every information of the Government.
(The author is a research scholar . Views are his own [email protected])
