Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has urged President Ram Nath Kovind to return the RTI Amendment Bill to theParliament to reconsider its "objectionable" provisions.
In a letter to the President, the leader of Opposition in the asembly has asked him to use the discretionary powers vested under Article 111 of the constitution to return the bill.
Chennithala also claimed that the proposed amendment "dilutes" the quintessence of the original Act formed to uphold the "Right to Know," which is a fundamental right of citizens.
Highlighting the serious constitutional issues related to the bill, he said in a press release that the amendments to the RTI Act discriminates the Information Commissions from other statutory Tribunals and Adjudicating authorities even though they perform similar quasi-judicial functions.
This "discrimination" is violative of Article 14 (Right to Equality) and does not answer satisfactorily to the test of "intelligible differentia" which is requisite for treating unequal's differently under ART 14.
The amendments also grant "arbitrary" power to the Centre to fix tenure and salaries of the state and Central Information commissions, which is also against the basic tenants of Art 14, he alleged.
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Chennithala termed the proposed bill as a "blow" to the federal scheme of the RTI Act.
"If the bill is enforced, it will create two sets of laws applicable to salaries paid in the State Information Commissions (SIC)s, one made by the state governments for staffers of SICs under the Sect 27 (2) of the RTI Act and the other which the central governments hope to make for the State Information Commissioners," he pointed out.
Besides, the salaries of Information Commissioners in the States are paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the concerned State over which the Central Government has no control.
On Monday, Lok Sabha passed the Bill amending the Right To Information Act, amid objections by the Opposition which alleged that it was an attempt to undermine the law and make the transparency panel a "toothless tiger".
The RTI amendment bill seeks to give the government powers to fix salaries, tenures and other terms and conditions of employment of information commissioners.