The Parliament today
passed the Freedom of Information Bill, 2000. The Lok Sabha had
already passed the Bill on December 03, 2002 after receiving the
views of the Standing Committee, which gave several suggestions
for its improvement. The Rajya Sabha passed it today after debate.
The Bill is in accord with both Article 19 of the Constitution
as well as Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Minister of State
for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Smt. Vasundhara
Raje who piloted the Bill said that the Bill would help bring
about a fuller and meaningful participation of people in governance,
which is a pre-requisite to parliamentary democracy. She said
that in case of provisions of the Official Secrets Bill, which
are inconsistent with the Right to Information Bill, the provisions
of the latter would prevail. Regarding the penalty for those officials
who refuse information, as per the Bill’s provisions, Smt. Raje
said that the CCS Conduct Rules would be amended for disciplinary
action against such officials. She said, we would learn as we
move along to implement the Bill and make improvements with the
passage of time. Out of 200 countries, only 20 have laws for Freedom
to Information, She said.
The Bill will enable
the citizens to have an access to information on a statutory basis.
With a view to further this objective, the Bill specifies that
subject to the provisions of this Act, every citizen shall have
right to freedom of information. Obligation is cast upon every
public authority to provide information and to maintain all records
consistent with its operational requirements duly catalogued,
indexed and published at such intervals, which may be prescribed
by the appropriate Government or the competent authority. The
Bill provides for appointment of one or more officers as Public
Information Officers to deal with requests for information.
In our present democratic
framework, free flow of information for the citizens and non-Government
institutions suffers from several bottlenecks including the existing
legal framework, lack of infrastructure at the grass-root levels
and an attitude of secrecy within the Civil Service as a result
of the old framework of rules. The Government proposes to deal
with all these aspects in a phased manner so that the Freedom
of Information Act became a reality consistent with the objective
of having a stable, honest, transparent and efficient Government.
The need to enact
a law on right to information was recognized unanimously by the
Chief Ministers Conference on "Effective and Responsive Government"
held on 24th May, 1997 at New Delhi. The 38th
Report relating to Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Personnel,
Public Grievances and Pension, recommended that the Government
should take measures for enactment of such a legislation.
In order to make
the Government more transparent and accountable to the public,
the Government of India appointed a Working Group on Right to
Information and Promotion of Open and Transparent Government under
the Chairmanship of Shir H. D. Shourie. The Working Group was
asked to examine the feasibility and need for either full-fledged
Right to Information Act or its introduction in a phased manner
to meet the needs of open and responsive Governance and also to
examine the framework of rules with reference to the Civil Service
(Conduct) Rules and Manual of Office Procedure. The Working Group
submitted its report in May, 1997 along with a draft Freedom of
Information Bill to the Government. The Working Group also recommended
suitable amendments to the Civil Service (Conduct) Rules and the
Manual of Departmental Security instructions with a view to bring
them in harmony with the proposed Bill.
The draft Bill submitted
by the Working Group was subsequently deliberated by the Group
of Ministers constituted by the Central Government to ensure that
free flow of information was available to the public, while, inter
alia, protecting the national interest, sovereignty and integrity
of India and friendly relations with foreign States.
