Six years of RTI’s existence has empowered the Indian citizen as a  proactive partner in governance like never before since Independence. But the government has not been able to digest it, ever since its implementation. Instead of trying to dilute or scuttle the Act, it’s time the government abides by Section (4) norms of ‘suo motu’ disclosure Apart from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose innocence and ‘clean image’ stands exposed thanks...

ON August 3, the Chief Information Commissioner, Satyananda Mishra, delivered two important decisions directing the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Supreme Court to answer certain questions about the functioning of the court to information-seekers in the manner they have sought it. In the first case, Commodore Lokesh K. Batra (Retd) vs CPIO, Supreme Court of India, the appellant had sought details about those cases pending in the Supreme Court...

-PTI   In order to deal better with growing intra-departmental RTI queries, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has decided to train its over 100 officials on different matters related to Right to Information Act. DoPT, which acts as a nodal agency to oversee implementation of the transparency law, has decided to train a total of 104 Central Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities. The decision was taken after some of...

-Deccan Herald   The Central Information Commission (CIC) has pulled up the Prime Minister’s Office for ''casually handling'' a plea filed under the RTI Act that demanded details of the foreign visits undertaken by Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC). Chief Information Commissioner Satyanand Mishra expressed displeasure as the Prime Minister’s Office forwarded the RTI plea seeking information on the Congress president’s visits to foreign countries, first to the Ministry...

-The Hindu   The Central Public Information Officer of the Supreme Court has informed RTI activist Subash Chandra Agrawal that Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia was yet to pass appropriate orders for the setting up of a Constitution Bench to hear cases relating to declaration of assets by judges and other connected issues. The CPIO, in her letter, said the matter was placed before the CJI on December 8, 2010. The...