-Zee News Information provided by a person while applying for passport can be disclosed under the Right to Information Act, the central information commission (CIC) has held. "Given our dismal record of mis-governance and rampant corruption which collude to deny citizens their essential rights and dignity, it is in the fitness of things that the Citizen's Right to Information is given greater primacy with regard to privacy," Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi...

On March 29, 2011, a Right to Information application on AIIMS faculty members travelling abroad on official tours was filed. The applicant sought details of their reasons for the visits, money spent and sponsors of the trips. AIIMS public information officer Lalit Kumar replied six days later saying, “The information is not available. Presently there are 450 committee members. The details for permission of this kind of work, thus the...

-The Hindu Both documents extensively discuss need for competitive bidding for scarce natural resources The fate of the Ashok Chawla Committee report on the allocation of natural resources suggests a wider government unwillingness to accept competitive bidding, auctions and market-linked pricing for scarce, natural resources lies at the heart of its 2G review petition. The Committee was set up on January 31, 2011, at the peak of the 2G scam expose and just...

Reluctance to make reports public could erode public confidence in government’s decisions, says CIC The central information commission (CIC) has directed India’s nuclear power plant operator to publicize safety analysis reports of the Kudankulam atomic power plant within a month. In a contentious two-year dispute between environmentalists and the nuclear power establishment, the apex information commission, in an order on its website, has said that the reluctance to make the reports public...

Srinagar, Apr 29: Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of Jammu and Kashmir GR Sufi Sunday said the disclosure of information about human rights violations and corruption by public authorities is mandatory and cannot be exempted in any circumstances under the state law. “Bringing departments out of the purview of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information (RTI) Act - 2009, doesn’t mean that they can withhold information over human rights and corruption,”...