-The Times of India GURUGRAM (Haryana): In four years since he has been the chief minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar has made 7,306 public announcements about development works in the state between November 2014 and November 2018, out of which 2,113 (29.82%) have been fulfilled. This was revealed by the government in a reply to an RTI filed by a city-based NGO. Other revelations include the number of announcements that cannot...

-The Hindu ‘Existing guidelines contrary to 2015 ruling on sharing information under RTI Act’ The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) “a last opportunity” to withdraw a November 2016 Disclosure Policy to the extent to which it stonewalls revelation of every other kind of information under the Right to Information Act, including the list of wilful defaulters and annual inspection reports. A Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao...

-The Hindu Public interest prevails, says judge New Delhi: The Right to Information Act confers on ordinary citizens the ‘priceless right’ to demand information even in matters affecting national security and relations with a foreign state, Justice K.M. Joseph observed in his separate judgment in the Rafale case. Justice Joseph was countering the claim made by the government for privilege over Rafale purchase documents under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), saying it affected...

-The Hindu The Centre has denied a Right to Information (RTI) request for details of the ongoing recruitment process for four vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC), despite a recent Supreme Court order mandating that such information be made public. The CIC is the RTI Act’s highest appellate body. “The judgment of the Honourable Supreme Court given in WP No. 436 of 2018 is under consideration of the department,” said the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Congress talks about safeguarding privacy, Trinamool warns of the misuse of surveillance and CPM proposes limiting the influence of technology behemoths. Leading political parties have woken up to the issue of digital rights in their poll manifestos, a move that has been welcomed by civil society and activists. The Congress manifesto promises to safeguard privacy and personal data by passing laws. It also lays down ambitious...