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Right to Information Act
Why is it in news?
- According to a report by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan and the Centre for Equity Studies, more than 2.2 lakh cases are pending at the Central and State Information Commissions.
Details:
- Reason for Pending Cases:
(1) Most commissions are functioning at a reduced capacity, including the Central Information Commission (CIC), which has been headless since August.
(2) Government officials face hardly any punishment for violating the law.
(3) Penalties were imposed in only 2.2% of cases that were disposed of, despite previous analysis showing a rate of about 59% violations which should have triggered the process of penalty imposition.
- At the current rate of disposal, the Odisha commission would take more than seven years to dispose of all pending complaints, while the CIC would take more than two years.
Right to Information Act 2005:
- It mandates to established Central and State Information Commissions in respective states with 1 chairman and not more than 10 members.
- Recently RTI act was amended to make the service condition of Information Commissioners at the discretion of the Central government.