The RTI Act provides that a request for
information may be rejected if it is covered under exemption clauses of Section
8 or Section 9. Also, information
pertaining to a third party is to be provided only after giving third party a
notice, who may, in turn, object to providing such information.
The Act has detailed provisions for dealing
with cases where the desired information is not provided or cases where
information is not supplied within the specified time period. As per section 20
of the Act, Information commissions have been authorized to impose penalty on
defaulting public information officers and they may also direct initiation of
disciplinary proceedings against such officers.
The Central Information Commission imposed penalty on 48 officials in
2008-09; 154 officials in 2009-10; 273 officials in 2010-2011 and 148 officials
as of 26.11.2011. Disciplinary action was taken by public authorities against 9
officials in 2008-09, 33 in 2009-10 and 432 in 2010-11. These include the cases
where either the information was not supplied or was supplied with delay.
As per details provided by public
authorities to the Central Information Commission (CIC), details regarding
requests for information which were received under the RTI Act and requests
rejected during last three years are given below:
|
Aspects
|
2008-09
|
2009-10
|
2010-11
|
|
Opening balance of RTI requests (as on
1st April of the reporting year)
|
32,792
|
97,474
|
1,37,771@
|
|
Number of requests received during the
year
|
329,728
|
5,29,274
|
4,17,955@
|
|
Total number of requests at the end of
the reporting year
|
362,520
|
6,26,748
|
5,55,726@
|
|
|
|
|
|
Number of Requests rejected
|
23,954
|
34,057
|
21,621@
|
|
Requests rejected as a percentage of
requests received during the year
|
7.26%
|
6.43%
|
5.20%
|
|
Requests rejected as percentage of total
number of requests at the end of reporting year
|
6.60%
|
5.43%
|
3.89%
|
|
|
|
|
@ Figures include public authorities which
did not report for some quarters.
No proposal to amend the RTI Act, 2005 is
under the consideration of the Government.
This information was given by Shri V. Narayanasamy Minister of State
in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and PMO in written
reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
*****
RS/PKM