But impractical demands under Act will be counter-productive The right to information is a cherished right. Information and the right to information are intended to be formidable tools in the hands of responsible citizens to fight corruption and to bring about transparency and accountability, the Supreme Court has held. A Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik gave this ruling (briefly reported on August 10) while allowing disclosure of answer sheets...

-IANS   A sum of Rs.44.23 lakh was recovered as penalty from central public information officers in the last four years for failing to provide information under the Right to Information (rti), the Rajya Sabha was informed Thursday. "A sum of Rs.2,21,56,363 was collected as fees from rti applicants by central public authorities over the period from 2007-08 to 2010-11 while over Rs.44 lakh was recovered as penalty," Minister of State for...

-CNN-IBN   Is Team Anna divided over bringing the Prime Minister under Lokpal's ambit? Two of Anna Hazare supporters - Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal - have divergent views on the issue pointing towards a difference in opinion among the civil society members on the issue. "It is not a very sticky point for us. Corruption at the lower level of bureaucracy is the first and the foremost which concerns the common people...

An rti activist in Manipur’s Imphal East district has been ostracised inhis own village for raising question over the construction of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan school building. Th Biren Singh (55) of Wakhong village fearing the eviction of the village school buildingin future if constructed in the unauthorised land, filed an rti application enquiring whether the school building was constructed within the school’s authorised (patta) land or not. “Now, the villagers who were...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the disclosure, under the Right to Information Act, of answer sheets of students of any examination conducted by any agency in India. A Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik gave this ruling, upholding a Calcutta High Court order permitting students to inspect and photocopy their answer sheets in any educational or professional examination. The Bench held that evaluated scripts would come under the...