Sheikh Maqbool
There are numerous supreme Court judgements which have recognised that the Right to Information is a fundamental right of citizens . The Act has the potential of making people a truly participatory democracy in which citizens can monitor the government and get accountability from it. This has raised a hope for better government; the Jammu &Kashmir Government enacted the J&K RTI Act on 20 March 2009 with a few progressive modifications. The Act mandates a legal -institutional framework for setting out the practical regime of Right to Information for every citizen to secure a cess to information under the control of public authorities. It prescribes mandatory disclosure of certain information to citizens,but the implementation of manuals listed for proactive disclosure must have been completed within 120 days of the enactment of the J&K RTI Act 2009. The reason for not adopting a full implementation of the law was to give time and support for complying with the provisions of proactive disclosure. Even with 10 years of enacting the law, it has not been achieved. Proactive Disclosure is a necessary aspect of the Act. It reduces burden of replying to requests for information which should any ways be put out in the public domain. Giving effect to this provision of the law would have a far reaching effect on the success of the implementation of the law.
The designation of public information officers(PIOs) and (APIOs) in all public authorities to attend to requests from citizens for information within stipulated time limits, a major achievement of the J&K RTI Act has been in specifying time frames for all the stakeholders in the system. A stipulated time period has been mentioned for -the public information officer to reply to the Applicant; the FAA to adjudicate the first appeal filed: and the commssion to deliver their decision. Condonation of delay both at the level of FAA and commission can be successfully pursued if reasonable. But decisions show the level of flouting the time frames. This must be stopped. Penalty which gives teeth to the Act must be resorted in cases which requires so. The Act provides for appeal to officers senior in rank to public information officers to be referred to as Appellate Authority aganist the decisions of PIOS. It also mandates Stats information commission to inquire into complaint , hear second appeals, the year 2018 had many decisionsby Mr Mohmad Ashraf Mir (SIC) ordering with respect to imposition of penalties even though the officers have been show caused and manner being updated with show causes notices as well . The orders have been welcomed, it’s only with the certainty of imposition of penalty that the law will have lasting effect . The Act prescribes the composition of JKSIC as a three member commission section 12(5) of j&k RTI Act lists the areas of expertise From which the commissioners can be appointed. The areas of expertise listed are: law science and technology, social service management, journalism, mass media and administration and governance. Presently the commssion is working on single member and second Mr Muneer Ahmad khan is supposed to join after theretirement from police department. The composition of the JKSIC does not reflect gender neutrality and there has never been a woman appointed to either of the posts.
The Act seeks to establish that “transparency is the norm and secrecy is an exception “in the working of public authority. It aims to ensure maximum openness and transparency in the machinery and functioning of Government at all levels. The right to Information is expected to lead to an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to the functioning of democracy. It will contain corruption and enable holding Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. The ‘people’s Right to know ‘has long history of prolonged debates, deliberations, discussions, struggles and movements.
(The writer is Vice chairman J&K RTI foundation .Views are his own [email protected])
