Right to Information Act 2005

Right to Information Act 2005:

This kind of Act was first applied in Sweden in 1776. In 1946, ‘United Nations’ declared the ‘Right to Information’, to be a fundamental human right. In 1982, L.K. Kulwal, a resident of Jaipur in Rajasthan, a social activist, initiated the process by applying to know the Jaipur Municipal Corporation’s work for cleaning the city. In the case filed in this matter, the High Court gave a clear verdict stating that ‘Right to Information’ is a fundamental right of all citizens. In 1990, Aruna Roy started the movement called as ‘Majdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan’. A need for ‘Right to Information’ was expressed through this movement. The Divisional Commissioner of Bilaspur of that time, Harsh Mander, showed courage to disclose official information while serving as a bureaucrat. The information he disclosed was in the context of the program of distributing food grains in lieu of daily wages. The struggle of Anna Hazare in 2001, had a decisive role in Maharashtra in this matter. The Act was implemented in Maharashtra on 12th October 2005.

The definition of the term ‘information’ includes official records, documents, memoranda, e-mails, comments, consultations, press notes, circulars, orders, logbooks, tenders, reports, correspondence, formats, models, electronic data, information of a private institution or an individual that is available in the records of any public establishment.

Right to information grants access to official documents, records, permission to obtain their copies, to take notes, to extract passages, to get samples of authorized material and prints of data stored in CDs, Floppy Discs, Tapes, Video Cassettes or in any other form, or stored on computers.

Citizens can get the desired information after submitting an application to the ‘Information Officer’ of a Public Authority.