General Studies Question With Answer Set-14

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General Studies Question With Answer Set-14

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Question. “Recent amendments to the Right to information Act will have profound impact on the autonomy and independence of the Information Commission.” Discuss (Answer in 150 words)

Ans. The Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 was passed to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense.

Changes in RTI Act

The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, gave the Centre the powers to set the salaries and service conditions of Information Commissioners at central as well as state levels. The conditions are as follows:

– Service Term The original act says that the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (ICs) (at the Central and State level) will hold office for a term of five years. – According to RTI (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Central Government will notify the term of office for the CIC and the ICs.

– Salary The original Act states that salaries, allowances and other terms of service of “the Chief Information Commissioner shall be the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner”, and those of an Information Commissioner shall be the same as that of an Election Commissioner. The amendment proposes that these “shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government.”

Against Federalism The proposed amendment allows the Central government to control through rules, the terms and conditions of appointment of Commissioners in the States. This is an assault on the idea of federalism. The Central government is not spending any of its funds on the salaries and allowances of state information commissioners. Hence, the Centre extending complete control over the salaries and term of the state information commissioners is not only unreasonable, arbitrary but also illegal and unconstitutional as it destroys the federal structure.

Role of Executive The service conditions will be notified by the executive against which the information is sought by citizens. The implementation of the RTI Act is possible only with its independence from the executive.

Impact of the Amendment

Amendment to the RTI Act violate the constitutional principles of federalism, undermine the independence of Information Commissions, and thereby significantly dilute the widely used framework for establishing transparency in governance in India.
Diminishing the status of the CIC, IC and State CIC from that of a Supreme Court judge would reduce their ability to issue directives to senior government functionaries.
The CIC, IC and State CIC will depend on the central government for their salary and service conditions. The executive may allure the IC’s for better perks and benefits. The autonomy of the institution will be weakened and the whole purpose of RTI will be lost.

Thus, RTI Act has established itself as an important tool in handling corruption and inefficiency in the Government. There have been instances of misuse of the Act. So, the issues and loopholes in RTI should be removed through proper amendments to further the objectives of transparency and accountability

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