Right To Information Act

The Supreme Court has sought responses from 11 states, including Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, on a plea alleging that they are yet to set up Right to Information (RTI) portals under the transparency law in pursuance of a 2023 judgment. In the landmark judgment, the top court had on March 20 last year directed all states, Union territories and high courts to set up RTI websites within three months, saying the online facilities would considerably facilitate the fulfilment of the objects of the Right to Information Act, 2005. On Monday, a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice J B Pardiwala took note of the submissions of a lawyer, representing petitioner Anuj Nakade, that as many as 11 states have not set up their RTI websites. "Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner states that the following states and Union territories have yet to comply with the judgment of this court dated 20 March 2023 requiring the setting up of online RTI portals: Andhra Pradesh, ...

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act over the collapse of an illegal under-construction building in Kolkata's western fringes, which claimed at least nine lives and injured several others. The five-storey building in the Garden Reach area collapsed early on Monday. Adhikari, also the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, alleged, "In the aftermath of the Garden Reach tragedy, the unpreparedness of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been totally exposed." "As a responsible leader of the opposition, I have initiated the process of data compilation regarding the process of sanctioning building plans, rejection of the same, issuing of completion certificates, identification and demolition of illegal buildings, etc," he posted on X on Wednesday. Adhikari also said this data would certainly help in "assessing the risk posed by the illegal buildings, which have been built without valid permission". The RTI petiti

The Delhi High Court has set aside an order upholding the Central Information Commission's (CIC) direction to telecom regulator TRAI to collect and furnish information under RTI proceedings about the alleged tapping of a mobile user's phone. A bench headed by Justice Vibhu Bakhru allowed an appeal filed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) against a single-judge bench order and said an act of surveillance is carried out under the government's directions and in the interest of the country's sovereignty and integrity, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence, and is exempted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. "Any orders passed by the government concerned in relation to interception or tapping or tracking of a phone is passed when the authorised officer is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do so in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of ...

'Marriage does not eclipse the right to privacy which is the right of an individual and the autonomy of such individual's right stands recognised and protected,' stated the Court

Following these claims, the central bank has urged the public to rely on the information published by itself in cases pertaining to such matters

India's external intelligence agency RAW is an exempted organisation under the Right to Information Act and unless the information sought by an RTI applicant relates to human rights or corruption issues, it is not liable to be disclosed, the Delhi High Court has said. The court's order came on a petition by an RTI applicant for disclosure of information on the residences of a former RAW chief during a certain period. The court refused to interfere with the CIC order refusing to supply the information to the petitioner and observed that Section 24 of the Right to Information Act provides that it does not apply to the security and intelligence organisations specified in its Second Schedule and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was one of them. "RAW is an organisation which is specifically mentioned in the Schedule to the RTI Act. It is an exempt organisation. Unless the nature of information sought relates to human rights or corruption related issues, information is not liable to be ..

The Delhi High Court has held that both Indian citizens and non-citizens have access to the Right to Information (RTI), and to restrict that to non-citizens would be against both the RTI Act

Former West Bengal DGP Virendra was on Wednesday appointed as the State Information Commissioner(SIC), state Parliamentary Affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said. The meeting to select the new SIC was held at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's chamber at the state assembly. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP skipped the meeting citing violation of the "advertising guidelines for inviting applications". Banerjee chaired the meeting. "There were 15 applications for the post of which 10 were found valid. The CM proposed Virendra's name and we supported it. Virendra has been appointed as the new state information commissioner," Chattopadhyay said after the meeting. Later speaking to reporters on the appointment of Virendra as the new State Information Commissioner, Adhikari said, "The meeting is illegal, it has met twice before. The Governor did not sign. I hope the Governor will not sign the appointment of Information Commissioner this time as well. All India level

The report mentioned the debate on disclosure of the RBI's failure to meet the flexible retail inflation target of 2-6% for three straight quarters between January and September

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

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) has claimed that records pertaining to a Right to Information (RTI) Act query by a player were destroyed by pests at its headquarters here, leading to a rebuke from the Central Information Commission. Responding to a query under the RTI Act seeking information on various issues by FIDE Master (FM) Gurpreet Pal Singh, the AICF claimed the records had been destroyed by pests. "Initially, they denied information stating that the case is pending in Madras High Court. Then they said records have been destroyed by pests and finally they denied it under section 8 (1)(d), (e), (j) of the act," Singh told PTI. "The commission did not agree with this and ordered them to provide information and admonished them for trying to misguide the commission and changing their stand," he added. He further said that "the AICF had earlier told the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that its records were destroyed by the floods in Chennai in 2015". At a hearing at

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

The case originates from an RTI query filed by activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd)

The National Commission held that flouting of the High Court's directions constituted a deficiency in service for which Bhupati could seek remedy under the Consumer Protection Act

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Monday

As many as 2,118 branches of 10 public sector banks have either been closed or merged with other banks in the last fiscal, according to an RTI reply

India has contributed half the corpus of the fund but released less than 20% to member nations

The number of NPA accounts rose from 2,08,035 as of March 31, 2014, to 6,17,306 as of December 2019

A notification in this regard will be issued soon and the same pattern will be followed as in other UTs, said Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh

An emotional affirmation to disclose sensitive, confidential exchanges generically must be avoided