RTI Act

The Delhi High Court has asked the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to deal with RTI applications strictly in accordance with the timelines prescribed under the law. Justice Prathiba M Singh, while dealing with a matter related to NGT's failure to respond to an RTI plea, said being a national tribunal, its RTI cell ought to function properly. In view of the fact that the NGT is a national tribunal, the RTI cell of the NGT ought to function properly. Needless to add, the RTI applications received by the NGT in future shall be dealt with strictly in accordance with the timelines and rules prescribed under the RTI Act and RTI Rules, said the court in a recent order. The counsel for the NGT told the court that now the tribunal has created a proper RTI Cell and the First Appellate Authority. The NGT counsel said the tribunal did not have full time staff in 2013. The RTI applicant had filed an application in March 2014 and sought disclosure of certain information on appointment to a certai

A plea has been filed before the Delhi High Court asserting that the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund must be deemed to be a public authority under the Right to Information Act. The application was filed by retired Navy officer Commodore Lokesh K Batra in a pending appeal dealing with the issue of classification of the fund as public authority under the law. The applicant said the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF), headed by a constitutional authority (Prime Minister of India) and administered by joint secretary to the prime minister, has all the trappings of being a public authority, and thus prayed for disclosure of certain information pertaining to the fund. The applicant had filed an RTI application before the Prime Minister's Office in April 2020 seeking information concerning the creation of the fund, entrusting the fund to the prime minister and the selection of chartered accountant for conducting of the audit, among others, the application said. The Central

'Whatever was discussed in the collegium was not required to be put out in the public domain, that too under the RTI Act'

The conflict between the RTI Act and the draft personal data protection bill needs to be resolved, says the communications minister

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday said the effective use of the Right to Information Act (RTI) will help in building a developed and corruption free country as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Inaugurating the 15th Annual Convention of Central Information Commission (CIC), the Speaker said the main aim of the RTI Act is empowering citizens, bringing transparency, getting system rid of corruption and taking democracy to the people of the country in the true sense. Addressing the two-day convention titled "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Citizen centric Governance through RTI", Minister of state for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh said the non-domiciles and non-State subjects of Jammu and Kashmir will also now be entitled to file RTI related on issues related to Union Territory (UT) or agencies. Lauding the Commission for hearing petitions from newly carved out Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh during the peak of Covid lockdown, th

Since FY17, the budget allocation for information commissions has shrunk by 82.7% from Rs 31.9 crore

The maximum number of RTIs were received by the Central government at 11 million, followed by Maharashtra at 8.6 million and Tamil Nadu at 3.6 million

Known sources have been defined as donations above Rs 20,000, whose donor details are available through contribution reports as submitted by national parties to the ECI

The Delhi High Court Friday reserved its order on an appeal challenging the decision of its single judge dismissing the plea seeking information on the agenda of a Supreme Court collegium meeting

Ranjeet Soni, while working as a contractor for various government departments, used the RTI Act to get information, often for issues related to government contracts, police said.

Goa CM Pramod Sawant's swearing-in ceremony attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top BJP bigwigs lasted for less than 20 minutes and cost the state exchequer nearly Rs 5.5 crore

The Raj Bhavan has been at the Centre of a controversy for nearly a decade now

More than two years after the Lokpal came into being, the Centre is yet to appoint a director of inquiry for conducting preliminary inquiry into graft complaints sent by the anti-corruption ombudsman

All private schools in Uttar Pradesh will now be under purview of the Right to Information Act and will have to compulsorily provide the information sought under the Act

The two largest banks of India feared that such a directive could be detrimental to their business operations and compromise the confidentiality of customer information

While the RBI must respect the spirit of freedom of expression, we need to draw a Laxman rekha, and the RTI Act should not become a tool to bypass all confidentiality requirements under other laws

RTI rejection down 4.3% overall, home ministry rejects 21% of RTI requests, finance rejects 13%

The government has paid Rs 1,364 crore to over 2 million undeserving beneficiaries under its ambitious PM-KISAN scheme, a reply to a Right to Information query by the Agriculture Ministry reveals

The AAP government's claim before the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that it has not approved any ration card applications from 2016-2018 was contrary to RTI information

The government of India spent a total of Rs713.20 crore on advertisements, with maximum share to the electronic media, during the financial year 2019-2020, a RTI reply to a Mumbai activist revealed