UPA-I flaunted the Right to Information Act as a symbol of their honesty and transparency. UPA-II is today voicing concerns about the use of the Act, including infringement of personal privacy.
Addressing the 7th Annual Convention of Information Commissioners here today, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh said, “There are some obvious areas of concerns about the way the Right to Information Act is being used, and I had flagged a few of them when I addressed this Convention last year.”
He said there are concerns about ‘frivolous and vexatious’ use of the Act in demanding information the disclosure of which cannot possibly serve any public purpose.
The issue of a separate legislation on privacy is under consideration of an expert group under Justice A. P. Shah, he said.
“Sometimes information covering a long time-span or a large number of cases is sought in an omnibus manner with the objective of discovering an inconsistency or mistake which can be criticised. Such queries besides serving little productive social purpose are also a drain on the resources of the public authorities, diverting precious man-hours that could be put to better use,” he stressed.
Singh went on to say that such requests for information have, in fact, come in for adverse criticism by the Supreme Court as well as the Central Information Commission.
Concerns have also been raised regarding possible infringement of personal privacy while providing information under the Act, he said.
“There is a fine balance required to be maintained between the Right to Information and the right to privacy, which stems out of the Fundamental Right to Life and Liberty. The citizens’ right to know should definitely be circumscribed if disclosure of information encroaches upon someone’s personal privacy. But where to draw the line is a complicated question,” Singh said.
There are other issues as well which need to be addressed. For example, how much information should entities set up in the Public Private Partnership be obliged to disclose under the Act. Blanket extension of the Act to such bodies may discourage private enterprises to enter into partnerships with the public sector entity, while a blanket exclusion on the other hand may harm the cause of accountability of public officials, Singh added.
“I know that there has been some confusion about the implications of the recent Supreme Court order regarding the composition of the Central and State Information Commissions. As you might be aware, the Government has decided to go in review before the Supreme Court in this matter,” he said.
Talking about the success of RTI, he said, “In the last year itself close to 10 lakh people in all parts of our country sought information from the Central Government authorities under this legislation.”
However, the Prime Minister felt that notwithstanding its successes, the Right to Information is still evolving in our country.