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RTI law
being grossly misused, says former CJI Balakrishnan
Thursday, October 21, 2010 10:43:34 PM, IANS
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New Delhi:
Former chief justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan Friday said the
Right To Information (RTI) Act "was grossly misused" and needed
amending to prevent the misuse.
"It is time for introspection on the five-year-old RTI Act. It is
grossly misused. Most of the applicants are applying the RTI not
for public good, but for misuse," Balakrishnan said at a seminar
on "RTI-Key to good governance", organised by the Institute of
Secretariat Training and Management.
Balakrishnan, currently the chairman of the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC), said the RTI needed some amendments to prevent
the misuse.
"It is not that we need to abolish or discard the RTI Act. But
some changes have to be made to prevent the misuse," he added.
The RTI law should should help to ensure equitable and inclusive
growth, he said, noting mere economic growth is not an
achievement.
"Development should improve the well-being of the people,
especially at the bottom line," he said, recalling how RTI
activists in Rajasthan could expose those siphoning off public
funds in the name of old age pension and widows pension.
Speaking at the event, Chief Information Commissioner A.N. Tiwari
said RTI should be saved from "an upsurge of emotions".
Admitting that RTI had some weakness as it was the "outgrowth of
judicial intervention and has a legalistic framework," he said the
RTI Act was facing divergent challenges.
"On the one hand, the aspiration of people to access information
was on the upswing while on the other hand, officials need
confidentiality to run the system," he said.
Tiwari said there were different categories of people frequenting
the RTI system.
"The first category is those who want to pull down the high and
mighty and want to know whether wealth was amassed by the
authorities or corruption was practised. The second set is those
who want to know how the government used its discretion in policy
matters," he said.
The third category, or "bread and butter" group, want to know
about the fate of their provident fund accounts and pension
papers, he said.
According to Tiwari, the fourth group, mostly officials facing
vigilance probes or disciplinary actions, were misusing the RTI
system most to find out the moves against them.
"These articulate, English-speaking, powerful group of bureaucrats
are the biggest challenge to the RTI system," he said.
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