-The Hindu The government has refused RTI requests for information on the decision-making process on amendments to Land Acquisition Bill. On January 17, Chitrangada Choudhury, a Fellow with the Open Society Institute, filed an RTI request with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), seeking documents, file notings and correspondence between the MoRD and other authorities relating to any proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and the NDA’s December 2014 ordinance. Two...

-The Hindu 11 out of 25 have never reported any RTI information to the CIC India's top security and intelligence agencies consistently refuse to give out any information about the Right to Information requests they receive, and those that do, reject the bulk of queries they receive, new data shows. Twenty-five of India's top security agencies are exempt from most of the requirements of the RTI Act, but are required to provide access...

The Right to Information Act, enacted in 2005, has been considered as the most effective tool in the hands of citizens to fight for transparency and accountability. However, there exists huge gender gap in awareness and usage of RTI Act, finds the report entitled People's Monitoring of the RTI Regime in India 2011-13, released in October 2014 (please see the link below). Prepared by RTI Assessment and Advocacy Group (RaaG) and...

-PTI In a serious blow to transparency regime in the country, the Madras High Court has said RTI applicants must give reasons for seeking information as it gave relief to its Registry from disclosing file notings on a complaint against a chief metropolitan magistrate. A division bench comprising justices N. Paul Vasanthakumar and K. Ravichandrababu said an applicant must disclose the object for which information is sought and also satisfy that...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: Efficiency is another matter, but state police are as good or bad as their more hyped counterparts in Maharashtra or Delhi as far as not following Right to Information (RTI) Act goes. A nationwide study on proactive information disclosure through police and prison websites across 29 states by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a New Delhi-based NGO, released yesterday, showed none followed the transparency regimen prescribed under RTI Act, Section...