1st Report RTI Master Key to Good Governance

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Introduction
Official Secret Act and Other Laws
The Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules
Confidentiality Classification (CC)
Rights and Obligations
Issues of Implementation
Application of the Act to Legislative and Judiciary

Preface
SARC is constituted to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public and
system.
RTI is a paradigm shift in administration.
RTI is a path-breaking legislation which signals the march from darkness of secrecy to
dawn of transparency.
RTI enables openness in the exercise of power. Means for fighting corruption.
Also, an environment of vigilance promoted participatory democracy (self-governance)
Official Secrets Act, 1923 (OSA) convenient smokescreen to deny public access to
information. Public functioning has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy.
RTI enables participatory decision making process.
An instrument for improving citizen-admin interface. Results in friendly, caring,
effective govt.
E-governance in Judiciary Systematic, classification, Standardization and
categorization of records. (all this is capacity building)
1)

Introduction
Key in ushering people centric governance. Empowerment of people. Good governance
(GG) 4 elements transparency, accountability, predictability, participation.
Transparency
availability of info about govt functioning in the public domain. For
public scrutiny
Makes govt function more objectively
(predictability)
(accountability)
Enables people participation. RTI is the basic necessity of GG.
While right to information is implicitly guaranteed by the constitution, the RTI Act sets
out the practical regime for citizens to secure access to information on all matters of
governance.
RTI Act 2005 is very comprehensive, covers all matters of governance. Minimum
exemptions.
There are bound to be implementation issues and problem areas, so for effective
implementation of RTI Act, some issues need to be addressed by legislative, Judiciary.
Shourie Committee 1997 On RTI and Transparency.
SARC followed this committees recom and recom of NCRWC (National Commission to
Review the Working of the Constitution)

2) Official Secret Act and Other Laws

Democracy people are Sovereign; elected govt and its functionaries are public
servants. But public interest is best served if certain sensitive matters affecting
national security are kept out of public gaze.
Cabinet meetings demands free debates on public issues, free from the pressures of
politics. People should have the unhindered right to know the decision of the Cabinet

and the reasons, but not what actually transpires within the confines of the Cabinet
room. So Confidentiality is required.
OSA colonial era law; created a culture of secrecy. Confidentiality became the norm
and disclosure the exception.
Civil Service Conduct Rules, 1964 - prohibited communication of an official document to
anyone without authorization.
Indian Evidence Act 1872 also fostered.
RTI overrides OSA or any other acts in case of inconsistency.
Recoms. All laws dealing with national Security (like Section of IPC, OSA, Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, Criminal Laws should be consolidated in a single act
National Security Act (NSA)
To prevent the disruptive activities, like
supporting secession, questioning or
disrupting the sovereignty, territorial integrity, treasonable activities.
Consolidation makes it easy for administration, eliminates ambiguous confusion.
NSA was enacted in 1980 but consolidated very few laws.
OSA should be repealed.
Govt privilege in evidence- Litigation against the state. State has som procedural
protections -> State need not produce certain info in the court. (Indian Evidence Act,
1872) (IEA)
IEA, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, etc should be
harmonized with RTI.
Oath of Secrecy (OoS) taken by bureaucrat and ministers prevents them from
revealing many matters. OoS is a legacy of colonial era. Some matters cant be
obtained in the public interest. Oos is against the principles of democratic
accountability and sovereignty. A written undertaking is enough An Oath of
transparency should be administrated instead.
Exempted Orgs Under RTI Act, Armed forces are excluded from its purview. The
exempted list should be updated periodically with changing times and needs *these
are not exempted from disclosure in case of corruption or human right abuses.
3) The Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules
Similar codes for state civil services, railways, foreign services, all India services etc.
Prohibits unauthorized communication of official info by public servants.
The accent, spirit and language in these rules is on denial of info to public Inhibits
govt. servants from sharing info with public .
These Conduct Rules were amended by DoPT in 2005. But states didnt amend.
Recoms need for amendment by states too, in-line with RTI.
Manual of Office Procedure - prohibits from the disclosure of notes or portion of a file. It
is totally conflict with RTI Act. So it needs to be amended.
4) Confidentiality Classification (CC)
Classification (restricting) of info tendency to classify info even when not needed. (in
the national security interests). Detailed rules of classification (guidelines) -> in
Manual of Office Procedure, (MoOP)
Manual of
Departmental Security Instructions
CC is major contributor to the lack of transparency.
MoOP needs to be amended to bring in harmony with RTI.
Classified info should be brought in to public domain after laps of some specified period
say 30 years depending on the degree of confidentiality (secret, top secret,
confidential etc)

Categories of classification needs to be rationalized (without ambiguities). Only top

bureaucrats of the dept should be given power to classify the info (acc. to the degree of
confidentiality)

5) Rights and Obligations

Rights and Obligations under the RTI Act to implement the act following measures
need to be taken
a. Building Institutions 1) Info Commissions , 2) Info Officers and Appellate Authorities
b. Information And Record-Keeping 1) Suo moto declaration 2) Public Interest
Disclosure
3) Modernizing Recordkeeping.
c. Capacity Building and Awareness Generation
d. Creation of Monitoring Mechanisms
a) Building Institutions: Govt. of India constituted the Central Information Commission (CIC) = 1 Chief
Information Commissioner and 4 Information Commissioners.
States constituted the State Information Commission (SIC) = 1 Chief Information
Commissioner and 1 Information Commissioners.
CIC has been hearing the appeals. Selection of CIC and SIC bipartisan process
involves leader of oppo.
As RTI covers Judiciary too, it is better to have Chief Justice in the selection
committee = inc. public confidence and enhance the quality of the selection.
Recoms RTI allows for dispersal (acc. to population density) of Info Commissions
to provide easy access to citizens. But no SIC or CIC has established offices in
places other than capitals.
Info Commissions should represent diff. (to inspire peoples confidence) sections of
society (acc. to RTI Act). But there is preponderance of persons with civil service
background though one advantage is insider knowledge about govt functioning.
Info Officers, Appellate Authorities: All depts. Have a Public Info Officer (PIO). In case of two or more PIO, in a dept, a
nodal PIO should be chosen from among them for easier accessibility for the public.
In GOI, PIO should be of uniform designation with sufficiently senior rank, say
Deputy Secretary/Director this would make it easy for PIO to access info from the
upper hierarchy.
Appellate authorities for each PIO should be appointed (as implied by the act)
b) Organizing info and record keeping: Proactive disclosure by govt agencies is the essence of transparency.
RTI Act stresses suo-moto disclosure (mostly through electronic disclosure)
As of now, most the times public needs to file application, to get even that info
which should be ideally disclosed under suo-moto disclosure.
So there is need for designing protocols for effective monitoring of suo-moto.
Electronic Disclosure (ED) cost effective. But vast majority of public dont have
access to computers. So printed prices publications should also be available for all
depts. ED should be through a single portal for GOI and States.
Public Interest Disclosure - not covered under RTI Act 2005. In many democracies
there are whistle blower protection laws which protect honest public servants who
disclose info about gross corruption which they know to be happening and it protect
them from harassment by superiors or others.
Recoms should enact Whistle Blower Protection Bill
Record Keeping -

 Totally neglected in India very poor 10th fin. Comm.. recom. Special grants for
states for improving record keeping.
Land Records very imp. proof of title; dispute resolution; access to credit is
usually dependent on land ownership, whole administration hinges on the accuracy
and reliability of land records.
So access to land records forms the bulk of requests under RTI but very poor
maintenance of land records in the last 60 years. no comprehensive land survey
took place many land records no longer exist.
Digitalization of Records so land records should be updated by land surveys
properly stored in printed form and electronic form for proper retrieval.
Problems: - In many govt agencies (state and central) record keeping procedures
do not exist, or not updated for decades. Practice of Cataloging, Indexing and
Orderly Storage is absent. Even when records are kept, retrieval of info is virtually
impossible. This results in tendency to give large amount of data which is
unprocessed and irrelevant whenever requested under RTI (no summaries)
Info should be easily retrievable and intelligible.
Measure updated record keeping procedures, cataloging, indexing, storage.
-- correcting all info into intelligible, retrievable info modules.
Digitalization of Records - setting up of a permanent expert agency Public Records
Office (PRO) at central and state levels, by consolidating the existing record
keeping agencies like State Archives etc. PRO will coordinate and supervise the
record-keeping should function under the supervision of CIC o SIS.
Funding for recording keeping one time investment.
PRO will design the procedures, infrastructure.
c) Capacity Building and Awareness Generation Mindset of bureaucracy culture of secrecy needs to be changed
Mindset of citizens reluctance to seek info needs to be changed
Requires sustained training and awareness programs. Even some PIO are not
familiar with some provision of the Act.
Awareness intense debates in media, pubic debates but at grass roots level,
awareness is very low.
Mostly limited to govt advertisements in print media. Media should involve mass
communication techniques. Govt. should organize educational programs. Civil
society (NGOs) should be involved.
Training of not just PIO, but ever y employee of govt, atleast for one day in a year.
d) Monitoring Mechanism
Supervising, detecting problems in implementation, rectifying them at several levels
- within the public authority, a group of authorities in a territory, for a whole state,
the county.
For each department/agency, the head of the organization will be responsible for
monitoring.
Some nodal dept or ministry or agency - at the apex of monitoring mechanism.
Nodal dept should logically be CIC or SIC.
CIC functions largely limited they only hear complaints and appeals and submit
annual reports.
Recoms CIC should also be made the coordinating agency between all the SIC,
which are currently independent. Coordination required for uniform implementation
of the Act, to avoid duplication of efforts, replication of good practices from one
state to another, minimization of litigation, for effective functions of nationwide web
based info dissemination system
6) Issues of Implementation

 Implementation of RTI Act is an administrative challenge which has thrown up

various structural, procedural, logistical issues and problems.
Problems in filing application:a. Complicated system of accepting requests often PIO office and account
office are at diff. places.
b. Insistence on demand drafts Rs 35 bank charges for Rs 10 form
c. Difficulties in filling applications by post
d. Varying and often higher rates of application fee
e. Large no. of PIOs.
Recoms:- many modes of payment should be included under RTI Uniform rates
Applications should be allowed to be filed in any post office, post office should be
authorized to act on behalf of PIO office in accepting applications.
Inventory of Public Authorities:- A list of all public authorities (should include NGO
funded by Govt) in the country is necessary. This list should be catalogued and
indexed. This can be prepared by an inverted tree method in which every authority
will prepare a list of authorities immediately under it.
- Nodal agency for implementation of RTI Act at GOI level is Dept of Personnel
and Training.
Single Window Agency (SWA) at distinct level:- All the departments and agencies
of the State Govt are represented at district level but they may geographically
widely dispersed.
Most of the times, applicant may be unaware of the location. So SWA (at
district level) is necessary to receive request and forward them to PIO.
Subordinate filed offices and public authorities:- Definition of it under RTI Act -> any authority or institute or body of Self
government established by constitution or by laws made by the parliament
or state legislation, or by any notification issued by govt, including institute
substantially funded by the govt.
- All Pub Authorities should appoint PIO/APIO, under RT but it has been
observed that lower tiers of the Government have neither been considered
as Public Authorities nor have PIOs been designated.
- Recoms -> Lowest office in any org which has decision making power or is a
custodian of records should be recognized as a public authority.
Application to NGO:- Under the Act, a non-governmental body needs to be substantially financed
by govt to be categorized as public authority under the Act.
- Gains importance because of outsourcing of functions of govt to NGO should
be clearly defined. Any org performing functions of public nature should
come under the definition.
Time limit for Information beyond 20 years:- Under RTI, a request can be made for info of any matters happens in the last
20 years. Many applicants may want to get info of an event beyond that.
This needs to be taken care of. like land records which are of permanent
nature.
Mechanism for Redressal of Public Grievances:- Citizens seek info mostly to redress their grievances Information is that
starting point in a citizens quest for justice and not an end in itself.
- So states should set up independent public grievance redressal authorities
to deal with complaints of delays or corruption These will work in
coordination with SIC/Dist. Single Window Agencies. -- Eg: Delhi Govts
Public Grievances Commission (PGC) 1997
Frivolous and Vexatious Requests:-

Applicants need not furnish any reason behind the request or any personal
details this is so to ensure that the there is no subjective evaluation of the
request, or denial on specious ground.
Cases Public Servants facing disciplinary charged have repeatedly
attempted to use the Act to intimidate, harass, and humiliate seniors with
requests that have been vexations.
Such frivolous requests may overwhelm the system; defeat the very
purpose of the Act. Terror of the administration may be paralyzed, seriously
undermining delivery of services.
Results in Breakdown of discipline, insubordination, disharmony in public
institutions, divergence of the resources to unproductive purposes.
Recoms PIO should be given the power to deny (within 15 days of
receiving) the requests of they are patently (clearly) frivolous and vexatious
- these refusals shall be examined by CIC/SIC. = this will deter the PIO, from
unwarrantably denying requests under the garb of frivolous requests.

7) Application of the Act to Legislative and Judiciary

All organizations covered by the Act
Legislative and the Judiciary already operate within the public eye to a far greater
extent than the executive.
However meetings of legislative committees not open to public and media nevertheless, most of the functioning of the legislature is in full public gaze.
Similarly, all judicial processes are in the public domain and hence totally
transparent.
Administrative process within the courts would have to be brought within the ambit
of this law but with no compromising with the independence of Judiciary Need to
bring uniformity in the info recording systems, introduce standard forms and a
better system of classification of cases.
Recoms Legislative - All information should be indexed, catalogued, digitalized
Online sharing of information under pro-active disclosure.
- Action Taken Reports (ATRs), proceedings of committees, questions,
debated etc should be disclose.
- Woodrow Wilson Congress in session is congress on exhibition; congress
in committees is congress at work
- Committee Proceedings In India, most of the important legislative work is
conducted in the Committees, away from partisan influences and transient
emotions. Most of time, legislators act with great moderation and bring
depth and substance to discussion on public policy.
- Parliament Session members tend to play to the galleries to capture
media attention, or take a partisan line or extreme position. These debates
are poor in standards, often polarize the society. No reconciliation is
possible in medias gaze.
- Bipartisan consensus is needed. Transparency has both advantages and
disadvantages here.
Recoms A tracing mechanism needs to be developed so that action taken by the
executive on various reports like CAG, House Committees etc is available to public
online.
- Judiciary - using IT for better court management and providing info to the
litigants Fresh cases in Sc and HC are filed only before computerized filing
counters; cause lists are generated automatically by the computer.
- Software (COURINIC) provides info about the statues of SCs pending
cases to litigants. SC, HCs are fully computerized.
- Admin processes in the district and subordinate courts will become
transparent with computerization of records, Indexing and cataloguing.

 Conclusion
RTI effectiveness depends on 3 fundamental shifts from culture of secrecy to culture of
openness; from personalized despotism to authority coupled with accountability; from
unilateral decision making to participative governance.
RTI cant change everything. It is only a beginning.
Creation of new institution, changes in laws and procedures, changes in attitudes and
traditions of people and public servants, adequate peoples participation.
More needs to be done to achieve accountability. Protection of whistle blowers,
decentralization of powers, etc
Redesigning the processes of governance.
by Shrey Rawat
Sources
1) Amarkeshs Hand-Written Notes available at https://drive.google.com/folderview?
id=0BzuxVwOA4U0YRjcwOWRjTXRJX2s&usp=sharing
2) Original ARC Reports.

I have used Amarkeshs hand-written ARC Reports Notes to prepare this summary
notes and also took
Reference from the original ARC Reports whenever there was a requirement to add
further details.
So here you have the Summary of one of the ARC reports > much properly formatted
spelling errors free
more detailed and editable, Enjoy.
Ill share the summaries of rest of the reports too, once theyll get finished. (Except 7th
and 14th Reports)
*Requesting*: Someone please prepare and share a summary, similarly formatted, of
the 7th and the 14th Reports.