India approves Right to Information Bill

Finally, India has approved the Right to Information Act 2005, giving the people of the country the right to get information about the affairs of any department or arm of the government, thereby giving the democracy some more transparency in its functioning.

FreedomInfo.org has a good analysis here. Some key points:

1. Information is defined in a very broad manner, not being restrictive to "records" or "documents". Information has broadly defined to permit the inspection of public works including taking samples of materials.
2. Public authorities must publish: the budget allocated to each agency, including plans, proposed expenditure and reports on disbursements; the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and beneficiaries; recipients of concessions, permits, licenses; and relevant facts while formulating policies or announcing decisions.
3. Time limits: In cases where "life and liberty of a person" is at hand, the time limit is a mere 48 hours. 30 days otherwise.
4. Fees: No fees if the person seeking information is below the poverty line.
5. Intelligence and Security agencies are exempt from this, except in cases which constitute claims of corruption and human rights violation.
6. I thought this was a bit weak: Any information that is over 20 years old can be release to any person. However, this pertains only to information that would "prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relations with foreign States of which would lead to the incitement of an offence". That is rather broad, and a lot of information would fall in that category.
7. Another serious weakness of the Act is that there is no provision for an appeal to an independent authority. Both of the appeals under the Act are to the government itself. This would hardly provide any relief to the citizens in cases where top officials of the government are themselves interested in withholding information from disclosure, which is often the case.
8. Another serious weakness of the Act is the fact that it does not provide any penalty for willful nondisclosure of information or for willfully incorrect disclosure of information by a government authority.
9. (7) and (8) above taken together makes the Act rather weak, in my opinion.

The important thing, however, is that this important right has now at least been recognised by Parliament, almost 60 years after independence. This is, however, not yet an effective instrument for the citizen due to its weaknesses. Apparently, the Supreme Court may examine these defects in the Act when the case of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation comes up for hearing in January. I do believe, however, that this Right is an important one for India, which should hopefully soon provide the citizen right to information and bring about transparency in the functioning of the government and its agencies.