-The Hindu Home Ministry took three days to request Army for deployment, according to information collected under Right to Information Act The riots that raged in Assam in mid-2012, claiming more than 70 lives and displacing lakhs of people, might not have escalated had the Centre reacted on time to the State’s plea for immediate deployment of the Army in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts, according to information gathered under the Right to...

-The Times of India Government cited the Constitution to deny information on the Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab's mercy petition. The ministry of home affairs rejected an RTI application filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak saying it was "privileged information" under article 74(2) of the Constitution. The Rashtrapati Bhawan went a step further to say that the information is not held in a "subject-wise manner." Nayak had in January sought information for...

-Governance Now Experts criticise CIC’s declaration that the attorney general is not a public authority, and thus cannot be under the ambit of RTI Act The chief information commission (CIC) might have struck another blow on the momentous Right to Information Act with its recent ruling that the attorney general (AG) is not bound to answer RTI queries. The declaration has drawn flak from RTI activists, experts and former information commissioners. According to the...

-Live Mint All file notings can be made public now except those explicitly exempted  The Union cabinet on Thursday decided to withdraw controversial draft amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act that sought to restrict disclosure of government file notings. The move allayed the concerns of rights activists. The draft amendments would have restricted disclosure of file notings only to social and developmental issues. The government had to drop the move following...

-The Times of India India is likely to be on an unchartered territory when it implements the Supreme Court order mandating the presence of a judicial officer and an expert to hear appeals in information commissions across the country. According to an independent survey on information commissions across the world there was no precedent of retired or serving judges as members of panels hearing cases related to freedom of information. The rapid...