The flow of information from government departments and ministries through the Right to Information (RTI) appears to be witnessing major restrictions after a controversy triggered by the RTI disclosure of a finance ministry note on the controversial allocation of 2G spectrum.
Emboldened by a Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) letter written on September 16, the officials in different government departments and ministries have started exercising extreme caution in disclosing information demanded by RTI applicants, especially associated with critical government decisions.
A senior finance ministry official dealing with RTI applications told Business Standard the situation had changed after the 2G note controversy and exemptions under the RTI Act were now being elaborately exercised before taking a decision on providing any information.
The finance ministry note to the Prime Minister’s office suggested that the 2G scam could have been averted if then finance minister P Chidambaram, currently the home minister, had insisted on auction.
The DoPT letter, sent to all the central ministries and department and also chief secretaries of all the states, seeks attention to its earlier guide on RTI and quoting a Supreme Court judgment on RTI.
It has reminded that the first part of the guide circulated on October 5 stated, “Only such information can be supplied under the Act which already exists and is held by the public authority or held under the control of the public authority. The public information officer is not supposed to create information; or to interpret information; or to solve the problems raised by the applicants; or to furnish replies to hypothetical questions”.
“The same issue has been elaborated by the Supreme Court in the matter of Central Board of Secondary Education & Anr. Vs. Aditya Bandopadhyay & others,” K G Verma, Joint Secretary (RTI) has pointed out.
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The finance ministry official said that besides the DoPT letter, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement on Friday that there was a need to take a critical look at RTI and also exemption conditions in the light of concerns raised on the possibility of government work getting affected due to RTI disclosures, will also have a bearing on handling of the RTI applications.
The portion of the judgment quoted in the letter includes, “...Where the information sought is not a part of the record of a public authority, and where such information is not required to be maintained under any law or the rules or regulations of the public authority, the Act does not cast an obligation upon the public authority, to collect or collate such non-available information and then furnish it to an applicant. A public authority is also not required to furnish information which require drawing of inferences and/or making of assumptions. It is also not required to provide ‘advice’ or ‘opinion’ to an applicant, nor required to obtain and furnish any ‘opinion’ or ‘advice’ to an applicant”.
“A situation in which a public authority is flooded with requests for information having no bearing on public interest is something not desirable. We must, therefore, pool all our wisdom, our knowledge, and our experience to come to a conclusion on how to deal with vexatious demands for information, without at the same time hindering the flow of information to those whose demands genuinely serve public interest,” the prime minister said at conference on information officers.