The government's attempt to bring transparency in top bureaucracy does not seem to be working with the elite Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. Almost one-fifth of them failed to declare details of their immovable property before expiry of the deadline on Monday, despite repeated reminders issued by the home ministry.  The revised list of officers, who did not submit their Annual Immovable Property Return (AIPR) for the year 2011 by June...

A public body cannot refuse information concerning appointment of employees under the RTI Act on the pretext that it is personal, third party information which is exempt under the RTI Act, the Central Information Commission has held.  Information Commissioner Sushma Singh said that all the information on appointments made by public authorities would be covered under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The transparency panel was hearing an appeal filed by...

-DNA Slamming private educational institutes that often use RTI for accessing the question papers of various examinations and making it public for their commercial gains, the Delhi high court said sundry information, unrelated to transparency and accountability, should not be allowed to be misused or abused. A division bench of acting chief justice A K Sikri and justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said this while setting aside the order of the Central Information...

-The Deccan Herald The Central Information Commission (CIC) has stated that a citizen’s right to information would get primacy over an individual’s right to privacy, adding weight to the principle of transparency. In an important decision, the transparency panel said though the state had no right to invade the privacy of an individual but in extraordinary circumstances, where the government sought information from citizens, details could be given out under the Right...

-The Hindu India has reason to come away feeling pleased with the outcome of the seventh G-20 summit, which concluded in Los Cabos on Tuesday. First, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ticked the Europeans off for landing themselves and the world economy in such a big mess and then expecting handouts from even poor countries. Second, the Prime Minister’s consistent stand, that growth and austerity have to be combined, has also finally found...