Narayan Varma
Supreme Court in State of
“In
a government of responsibility like ours where the agents of the public must be
responsible for their conduct there can be but a few secrets. The people of
this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in
a public way by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the
particulars of every public transaction in all its bearings.”
The real
change would come when the citizens start demanding accountability and the
bureaucrats are forced to respond. Then
it would not be easy for the government to go astray.
We, Chartered Accountants, have the responsibility to get involved in spreading the use of and ourselves using the provisions of RTI Act to bring better governance in various government departments we are connected with. It is with this in mind BCAS has this feature in BCAJ since October, 2005.
Now with
this issue of April 2006, in this feature attempt is being made to go through
the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. The feature will no doubt also cover in brief
the stories how citizens outside our profession use RTI to make a difference in
their own lives and their surroundings.
Hopefully, these stories will soon include how CAs
are using RTI Act for the similar purpose.
† Like many other Acts, section 1 provides
the name of the Act, it’s spread which is the whole of
† Section 2 defines various words and terms, some of the important definitions are:
– 'Information’ means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force;
From
the above, it will be observed that the definition of ‘information’ is
wide. Thus, citizens have right to get
any information contained in various forms.
It can go even beyond items covered in above as it is an “inclusive” elaboration
for ‘any material in any form’.
–
‘Public authority’ as referred to in above definition
of ‘information’ is defined to mean any authority or body or institution of
self - government established or constituted-
(a)
by or under the constitution;
(b)
by any other law made by Parliament;
(c)
by any other law made by State Legislature;
(d)
by notification issued or order made by the
appropriate Government,
and includes any-
(i)
body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
(ii)
non-government organisation
substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the
appropriate Government;
Thus,
it will be observed that not just Government departments but many other bodies
constituted under any act of the Parliament / State legislature, [e.g. our institute,
ICAI] get covered. All nationalised banks and RBI are covered so also all public
sector undertakings and so on.
It
will cover various NGOs which are substantially financed by the
Government. Word “substantially” in
above will be a matter of interpretation but definitely when 50% or above
resources of any non-Government organisation are met
by the appropriate Government, same will get covered. Appropriate Government would cover both the Central Government, Union territories and State
Government. It is also noted in the
definition of “appropriate Government” that ‘substantially financed’ could be
by funds provided directly or indirectly.
–
What is “record” as referred
to under the definition of “Information”.
“Record” includes-
(i)
any document, manuscript and file;
(ii)
any microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a
document;
(iii)
any reproduction of image or images embodied in such
microfilm (whether enlarged or not); and
(iv)
any other material produced by a computer or any other
device;
Above
definition further expands the meaning of the crucial word “information”
Finally,
the important words / terms defined include “right to information”
–
“right to information” means the right to information
accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public
authority and includes the right to -
(i)
inspection of work, documents, records;
(ii)
taking notes, extracts or certified copies of
documents or records;
(iii)
taking certified samples of material;
(iv)
Obtaining information in the form of diskettes,
floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through
printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other
device;
This
is also an inclusive definition and gives very wide right to get information in
many modes.
I
interpret above to say that it would be possible for any Chartered Accountant
to inspect his own files, whether marked confidential or otherwise, appraisal
reports made after search operation (which are normally not provided to the
person raided). It will be possible to
inspect files in the office of any CIT/CCIT containing instructions to
sub-ordinate officers under him, to inspect file of all “Instructions” by CBDT
to CCITs etc. and so on. We now need to act on these rights and get
working of various Government departments transparent and open.
Towards
above objective, BCAS Foundation starts “RTI Clinic” from April 2006, detailed
announcement appears hereunder. Please
come and take advantage of it and become an empowered CA.
† Very interesting and highly appreciable
item of news appeared in TOI on
Army
creates RTI Link on website
‘If
you want to know how many scheduled caste soldiers have been inducted in the
army since independence, you don’t have to stress much. Getting the army to respond to your questions
just became easier, with the army creating a link on its official website (www.indianarmy.nic.in) to address
queries under the Right to Information Act, 2005.’
It further states:
‘As
long as your curiosity does not breach the clauses of section 8 of the Act, or
causes unwarranted invasion of someone’s privacy serving no public interest,
the army will gladly answer. Queries
under the right to information act can be emailed to the additional director
general (public information)’.
Let
us hope, other “public authorities” follow such an appreciable step taken by
the Army.
†
In reply to question asked under RTI Act, BMC has
reported that it has used 208 metric tones of asphalt mix to repair 945
potholes following the deluge in July last year, it works out to 220 kg. of
asphalt mix on an average to repair each pothole on 31 roads, something
unbelievable and yet information as provided states that none of the potholes
were repaired as per BMC norms since they were “not equipped with the required
machinery” and that they were operating under a high court deadline during an
ongoing PIL and so there would have been no time to follow the norms.”
When will Mumbai wake up!