-Mid-Day.com Politicians are not known to be fans of the Right to Information Act, but now they seem to have discovered that they can use the same law to obtain details on RTI activists' work, allegedly in order to know which activist they need to harass to prevent the next big expose. RTI activists claim that political leaders are making their proxies use the sunshine law to know what information the activists...

-The Times of India Days after Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia said that irrelevant RTI queries were impeding the working of judges in courts, Central Information Commission said the remarks would have a significant negative impact on RTI. Information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, in a letter to the CJI, said that his comments could "dampen the RTI journey of India". Gandhi admitted that RTI was being used in a trivial...

Appointments to India's secretive external intelligence arm, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), could come under public scrutiny, with the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) upholding an order that the administrative process of an appointment is not exempted from the RTI.  Although the agency is likely to further challenge the order, the CIC ruling does throw open RAW's functioning and officials to RTI applications.  Passing an order on an RTI query seeking information...

-The Hindustan Times The anticipatory bail petition of RTI activist Manoj Kumar Karwasra was dismissed on Friday by additional sessions judge, Hisar, Sant Parkash. Karwasra had been booked under IPC sections 419, 420 and 120-B on the complaint of BS Rana, president, St Sophia School Education Society. Karwasra allegedly misused BPL card of Jeet Ram to seek information under the RTI Act, as BPL card-holders can seek information free of cost. Police...

-The Hindu ‘This will ensure greater transparency in decision-making' In a significant ruling, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has said reports of all expert committees and commissions, constituted by the government, should be made public to ensure greater transparency in decision-making. Allowing a petition seeking a copy of a report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), the Commission has rejected the contention of the Public Information Officer (PIO) that the disclosure...