The only RTI activist appointed in the Central Information Commission as an Information Commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi has set the bar high for the other Commissioners by clearing nearly 20,000 cases in four years. On Friday, July 6, as he demitted office at the end of his term, he spoke to Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar about how to improve the delivery of information through the Right to Information Act. Excerpts. How do you...

-Live Mint Shailesh Gandhi, a key campaigner for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, became an information commissioner at the Central Information Commission (CIC) in 2008. After a stint of nearly four years, Gandhi will retire on 6 July. In an interview, Gandhi talked about the implementation of the Act and on the government’s attitude to the transparency law. He said RTI had become a “problem child” for the government and it...

-The Hindu Observing that “Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has demonstrated complete lack of judicial discipline”, the Delhi High Court has quashed two orders passed by him on appeals by a RTI activist against denial of information sought by him from the Registrar of Companies regarding a company. The Registrar of Companies had denied information to the activist under the Right to Information Act saying that it was not within the purview...

-The Hindu Once a Bill is tabled in Parliament after Cabinet nod, there can be no bar on disclosing the contents The Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that once a Bill has been tabled in Parliament, the Cabinet decision and file notings relating to it can be made public. Ordering the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to produce the Cabinet note, papers and file notings relating to the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority...

-The Economic Times Heaps of dusty files continue to grow in government buildings and sensitive papers are mysteriously lost, leaked or dramatically reduced to ashes in fires while the six-year-old plan to modernise and digitise governance remains tied up in what it should eliminate - red tape. The latest casualty was the Union home ministry, where a fire was reported on Sunday, days after a blaze engulfed Mumbai's Mantralaya, killing people and...