The Supreme Court of India has underscored that power and accountability go hand in hand and underlined that while all citizens shall have the ‘right to information’ under Section 3 of the RTI Act, the co-relative ‘duty’ in the form of the obligation of public authorities is recognised in Section 4 of the legislation.
In one of the judgements, the top court has held right to information as an integral part of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.
The legislation, without a doubt, is to provide access to services and rights, and bring in transparency. Nevertheless the ambition and promise is far from fulfilled because authorities at different levels have more often than not provided information, more so suo- moto. There is no doubt about the legislation’s role in fostering a more informed citizenry and an accountable government. However there have been persistent and growing worries and one such remains non adherence by many departments to Section 4 of Act which makes it binding for all the public authorities operating in the Jammu and Kashmir to make the suo-moto and pro-active disclosure of all the permissible information available with them within a period of 120 days from the date of commencement of the legislation.
The RTI Act of the erstwhile State was repealed by the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 passed by the Parliament and Central Right to Information Act, 2005 became applicable from October 31, 2019.
The RTI Act has already come into force, meaning thereby that the public authorities in Jammu and Kashmir are legally bound to comply with the provision of law.
Time and again, the GAD had issued circulars and asked such departments who have not so far created their own departmental websites to do so within a fortnight and host the requisite material on the websites under the provisions of the Right to Information Act on regular basis.
Under Sec 4 of the RTI Act, the departments need to maintain all records in a manner which facilitates the right to information and can be computerised within a reasonable time; provide information suomotu at regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet; publish particulars of its organisation, functions and duties, the decision making process, a statement on its documents, consultation processes on its policies, details of on subsidy programmes, the budget allocated to each of its agency. Given the fact that Section 4 of the Right to Information Act deals with the obligations of public authorities, all departments should disclose the updated information voluntarily without fail.
