-The Hindu New Delhi: Reena, a single mother, has been unable to acquire Scheduled Caste certificates for her children as her RTI (Right to Information) application filed in 2016, still remains unanswered. “I had applied for Scheduled Caste certificates for my children but was told by the Revenue Department that the caste certificate of the father needs to be provided. In 2016, I filed the RTI application seeking information on the documents...

-NDTV (with inputs from IANS)   RTI responses on EVMs have highlighted irregularities in everything from the number of voting machines the Election Commission bought to the price it paid for them. New Delhi: Responses to a series of Right to Information requests have thrown up multiple red flags in the Election Commission's acquisition and use of EVMs or Electronic Voting Machines. From huge inconsistencies in the records of the machines acquired...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed a ceiling of Rs 50 for public bodies, including legislative assemblies and high courts, for providing information under the Right to Information Act. A bench of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit also ruled that the government bodies could not charge more than Rs 5 per page for giving photocopies of documents sought under the Act. It...

-The Indian Express Several commissions were either not functioning or functioning at reduced capacity as posts of Commissioners, including those of Chief Information Commissioners, were vacant during the period under review. A recent study to assess the performance of Information Commissions (ICs) by non-government organisations Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) and Centre for Equity Studies (CES) has found several shortcomings in their functioning, which impact the effectiveness of the Right to Information...

-Newsclick.in An assessment conducted by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan and the Centre for Equity Studies has flagged the problems of huge pendency of appeals and complaints as well as long waiting periods for disposal. The information commissions (ICs) set up under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 are critical to citizens exercising the hard-won Right to Information, which can hold the government and public offices accountable. But a new report on...