Objectives and Features of Right To Information Act, 2005

In 2005, India passed the Right to Information Act. India is indeed the 48th nation to put the Right to Information into effect. The RTI Act has been implemented in over 90 countries at this time. There are many different features of the Right to Information Act 2005.  This is one of the very crucial steps taken by the government of India to have transparency in all the activities done by them.

What is RTI? 

The full form of RTI is the right to information, and it is a basic right guaranteed by the Indian constitution under Article 19.1. Each individual does have the right to speak freely and express, according to article 19.1. The Supreme Court decided in 1976 that persons cannot communicate or articulate themselves until they know. As a result, the Right to Information is a basic right that is glorified in article 19.1. In a similar case, the court stated that because India is a democratic and the citizens are the owners, the owners or citizens get a right to be informed about how the government intends to provide service to them. Furthermore, because each citizen pays income tax, they have a right to be informed about how their cash is used.

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Objectives of Right to Information Act 2005 

The RTI Act’s main vision is to empower the nation’s people. To accomplish this, the nation’s leader must seek to enhance openness and accountability in government activity, eliminate corruption, and enable democracy to truly operate in the residents’ favour. People who are better educated are more organised and ready to maintain a constant eye on the tools of administration and make the government more answerable to the public. This Act is a significant leap toward better informing the citizens of a nation about the government’s operations. The Objectives of the right to information act 2005 are as follows.

• To guarantee that individuals have access to information.
• To encourage information transparency.
• To encourage administration transparency.
• To avoid arbitrary administrative decisions.
• To make sure that public governance is accountable.
• To keep corruption at bay.
• Well-informed citizens are critical to a democracy’s success.
• To make the govt and its agents answerable to the public they govern. Make the govt more receptive, to put it another way.

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Features of Right to Information Act 2005 

Below are all the features of the Right to Information Act 2005:

• People can examine government records and operations and request each detail from the government under the right to information Act.
• You can get data from every govt, including the state and federal governments, the Panchayati Raj, and even from some other state or federally managed, controlled, and sponsored entity.
• A minimum of one official has been appointed as a public information officer (PIO), which receives application forms and provides the details requested by the public.
• Assistant public information officials are stationed throughout every district/divisional stage, receiving inquiries for information and then appealing the PIO judgments. Section 5(1) requires them to forward the petitions to the proper authorities.
• Each individual seeking information should submit a request in Hindi or English, either electronically or handwritten.
• In the event that the application cannot be submitted in writing, the PIO will provide all necessary help in making the application verbally in order to reduce the request’s length in composing (Section 6(1)).
• If the petitioner cannot hear, blind, or visually impaired, the public body shall provide assistance to ensure that all pertinent information is available (Section 7(4)).
• The petitioner is not needed to provide any justifications for seeking the information or indeed any private details aside from their contact numbers.
• If the public information officer fails to provide data in a timely manner, the petitioner has the right to submit a grievance against PIO.
• An ordinary man can never be refused facts that the legislative council or legislature cannot forbid.
• If a public information officer fails to provide requested information underneath the Act, the public information officer may be fined Rs. 250 for each day and for each delay. According to Section 20 (2), the information commissioner can also suggest disciplinary measures against the responsible public information officer.

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The Meaning of ‘Information’ According to the RTI Act 

Tracks, paperwork, memorandums, emails, opinions, guidance, press releases, bulletins, order entry record book, agreements, reports, journals, samples, designs, information content kept in whatsoever digital form, and data relevant to any private organisation that can be obtained by citizens authority under some other legislation currently in force.

Conclusion

The major goal of this Act is to give the public the authority to ask questions about how government machinery works, to encourage effectiveness and accountability in government activities, to control fraud, as well as to enable democracy to function for our residents. The Act prohibits the govt from becoming misled in the respect that it creates the impression that the govt and its related branches are acting in the best interests of the general population. The objectives of the right to information act 2005 are very clear that all should have access to the information.