It is official. The government is contemplating amendments to the Right to Information Act, 2005.
The Department of Personnel and Training, which admitted to considering about a dozen amendments to the Act in an April 30, 2010 letter to RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, was upfront about the nature of at least two of the amendments: exempting the office of the Chief Justice from the RTI Act and barring applications which could be deemed to be “frivolous or vexatious.” Other amendments proposed relate to “disclosure of Cabinet papers”; constitution of “benches” of the Central Information Commission; and exemptions for organisations possessing sensitive information.
Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan recently wrote to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking exemption for his office from the Act.
Keywords: RTI amendments, CJI, exemption, Subash Chandra Agarwal
IT IS OUTRIGHT DISGUSTING TO FIND THE CJI EXEMPT FROM THE RTI ACT.IS THE CJI ABOVE LAW HOW IS IT THAT HE IS ALONE EXEMPT FROM THE RTI.THIS CANNOT BE ACCEPTABLE TO ANY ONE.UNLESS THE GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS THAT THE
OFFICE OF CJI CAN BE CORRUPT BUT CANNOT BE QUESTIONED. ALL ARE BOUND BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNTRY.IN FACT THE JUDICIARY MUST BE AN EXAMPLE AND BE TRANSPERENT IN DISCLOSING ALL THEIR ASSETS.DENIAL OR
AVOIDING MAKES PEOPLE SUSPICIOUS IF THEY ARE REALLY HONEST AND TRANSPERENT. ALL FROM THE PRESIDENT TO A ORDINARY MAN SHOULD BE COVERED UNDER RTI ACT TO MAKE IT MEANINGFUL THERE SHOULD AND CAN BE ABSLOUTELY NO EXEMPTIONS.
Proposed Amendments are certainly against the spirits of RTI, back to RED TAPE-ism. This is expected from Dr, Manmohan, who was one among them. But he blemished small hope of billions on this COUNTRY's Rise to CIVILISED SOCIETY.
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