By Shailesh Gandhi on Thursday, July 10, 2008
'Once any information is with a Public authority, it is information available to any Citizen under the Right to Information Act, subject to the provisions of the Act. Repeatedly, the Act recognizes that what is with the Government is on behalf of the Citizen.' When using the Right to Information, it is necessary to understand
what ‘information’ is. We will examine the definition given in the Act
The Act defines 'information' in Section 2 (f):
2 (f) "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, and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force; Comments: In simple terms it means that information is anything, which exists in any form with a public authority. The specific instances –records, documents, memos, emails, opinions, advices, reports, samples, models among all are merely meant to illustrate the broad scope. Clearly file no tings are opinions, legal or other opinions obtained by Public authorities, or various reports received by them are all covered. This also lays down a very important principle. Information relating to any private body, which may not be covered by the definition of 'Public Authority' (given in Section 2 h), can be obtained through a public authority if the law allows the public authority to access it. Thus if any public authority has the right to ask for any information under the law from a private organization-which is not a public authority - citizen can ask for it from the public authority.
A few illustrative examples of how information may be obtained from institutions which are not Public authorities : |
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Information about a private bank can be obtained from the regulator Reserve Bank of India, - if the law permits RBI to ask for it. |
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Information about a private unaided school--from the education department. |
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Information about a Public Limited Company –from the Registrar of Companies or SEBI if the law empowers them to ask for it.. |
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Information about a Cooperative Society-from the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.. |
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Information about Trusts-from the Charities Commissioner. |
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There is some difference of opinion on whether the term 'accessed' means any information, which the authority can ask for under various provisions or the information which the authority is usually supposed to get under the law. For example: The Labor office requires certain information to be submitted at certain intervals- this certainly can be accessed under Right to Information, since all information with the State is held on behalf of the Citizen. However, the labor office during an investigation, can access virtually all the records of an organization which normally would not be done. Some RTI users argue that this proviso can therefore be used to mean any information of a private organization can be obtained through any Public authority by invoking the special investigative powers of the Public authority.
Such a wide interpretation would actually mean that all private organizations could be forced to disclose all the information with them. Most Commissions do not agree with this view, and I am inclined to agree with their view. Only the information normally accessed by the Public authorities comes under the ambit of RTI. On the other hand all information with the Public authority is certainly information covered by the Right to Information Act. The Public authority holds the information on behalf of Citizens-the owners and masters of the Government,-on their behalf. Shri Laxmi Chauhan had asked for certain information from the PIO of the Ministry of Mines about BALCO. This was refused by the PIO. The CIC in its decision in this case in No.CIC/AT/A/2007/00389 has categorically stated, "The information must be available in the annual report of the company, which under law is to be submitted to shareholders. Being a shareholder of the company, with representation on its Board of management, the information sought must be available with the Ministry of Mines, and what is available with the Ministry cannot be denied to an applicant under the Right to Information Act." |
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