RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005
- The Right to Information Act, 2005 empowers the citizens, promotes transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, combat corruption, and make the democracy work for people in real sense.
- The Act aims at creating an informed citizenry which would be better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the government more accountable to the governed.
- The Act gives all the citizens the right to seek information held by any authority or body or institution of self government established or constituted by or under the Constitution; or by any other law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature; or by notification issued or order made by the Central Government or a State Government.
- The right includes inspection of work, documents and records; taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records, taking certified samples of material held by the public authority or held under the control of the public authority.
- The request can be sent either by post or submitted in person in Hindi, English or in the official language of the area and can also be sent through e-mail.
- If the applicant does not get the information within 30 days or the applicant is not satisfied with the reply given to him, he can make an appeal within 30 days to the appellate authority appointed by the authority who is an officer superior to the Public Information Officer.
- The appellate authority has to decide the appeal within 30 days of the receipt of appeal.
- If the applicant is not satisfied even with the decision of the appellate authority, he can file a second appeal with the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be within 90 days.
- The Central Information Commission / State Information Commissions are high-powered independent bodies created by the Act, and they can impose penalty on the defaulting Public Information Officers.
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE – CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS
- Article 343 (1) of the Constitution provides that Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the Official Language of the Union, Article 343 (2) also provided for continuing the use of English in official work of the Union for a period of 15 years (i.e., up to 25 January 1965) from the date of commencement of the Constitution, Article 343 (3) empowered the parliament to provide by law for continued use of English for official purposes even after 25 January 1965.
- Accordingly, section 3 (2) of the Official Language Act, 1963 (amended in 1967) provides for continuing the use of English in official work even after 25 January 1965.
- The Act also lays down that both Hindi and English shall compulsorily be used for certain specified purpose such as Resolutions, General Orders, Rules, Notifications, Administrative and other Reports, Press Communiques, Administrative and other Reports and Official Papers to be laid before a House or the Houses of Parliament; Contracts, Agreements, Licences, Permits, Tender Notices and forms of Tender, etc.
- In 1976, Official Language Rules were framed under the provisions of section 8 (1) of the Official Languages Act, 1963 as amended in 1967. Its salient features are as under:
- They apply to all Central Government Offices, including any office of a Commission, Committee or Tribunal appointed by the Central Government and Corporation or Company owned or controlled by it except the State of Tamil Nadu.
- Communications from a Central Government Office to State/Union Territories or to any person in Region “A” comprising the States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana and UTs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Delhi, shall be in Hindi;
- Communications from a Central Government Office to States /UTs in Region “B” comprising the State of Punjab, Gujarat, Maharahstra and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, shall ordinarily be in Hindi. However, communication to any person in Region “B” may be either in English or Hindi.
- Communications from a Central Government Office to a State Government Office in region “C” comprising all other States and UTs not included in region ’A’ & ‘B’ or to any office (not being a Central Government Office) or persons shall be in English;
- Communications between Central Government Offices in region “C” to a State or Union Territory of ‘A’ and ‘B‘ or to any office (not being a Central Government Office) or persons in such state may be either in Hindi or English and from Central Government offices to the offices of the State Government / Union Territories.