Right to Information Act 2005 vis-à-vis Good Governance Garg Mukesh1,* 1Assistant Professor, Law Department, Ch. Devi Lal University, Sirsa (Haryana), 125055, India *Email: mgarglaw@yahoo.com
Abstract The Right to Information Act, 2005 confers right to the citizens to access information held by a public authority. It extends to whole India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. As State of Jammu and Kashmir has its own RTI Act 2009. This act covers all bodies that come under government notification including NGOs that are owned, controlled or substantially financed by the government. Passing this act is a milestone in the history of good governance. It makes the work of public authority more transparent. This act is a step towards curbing the corruption in the administration. It confers a right to the citizen to know how the public money is to be spent by the public authority. According to this act 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. The right to seek information from a public authority is not absolute. Sections 8 and 9 of the act enumerate the categories of information which are exempted from disclosure. Sections 27 and 28 of this act themselves impose restriction on the right to access information. These sections give power to the central government, state governments and the competent authorities as defined in Section 2 (e) to frame their own rules and they may frame the rules which restrict the right to access information. These rules can be different in different states. Similarly, there can be conflict between rules under RTI Act 2005 and state RTI Rules. There might be a lot of obstacles in making this act successful but still this act has a huge significance in the public administration as any citizen can file an application for seeking information under this act. Top Keywords Right to Information, Public administration, Governance, Transparency. Top |