Right to information act and its Amendments

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Right to information act and its Amendments
For a legal professional, it is necessary to have
access to information in order to handle a
lawsuit or any case concerning a government or
public authority. For this, the most basic right
that the government of India have given to all
its citizens the Right to information is very
useful. Documents acquired through the right to
information are taken as strong evidence. Also,
this information also helps them to provide
valuable services to their client. Lets first
understand what is Right to information is, why
it was enacted, its objectives, amendment and
most importantly time period in which we can get
information. Right to Information Act,
2005 Right to information commonly known as RTI
is enshrined under Article 19 (1)(A) of the
Indian constitution, which states that every
citizen has the freedom of speech and
expression. First, when a bill was introduced in
the parliament regarding the freedom of
information to the public in 1997, which become
an act named the Freedom of Information act in
2002. But due to some reasons, it was not
notified. After this, to ensure greater more
effective access to information, the government
wanted to make this act more progressive,
participatory and significant. With the
suggestion of the National Advisory Council,
there were certain changes in the existing act
which ensure smoother and better access to
information. An Act to provide for setting out
the practical regime of right to information for
citizens to secure access to information under
the control of public authorities, in order to
promote transparency and accountability
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in the working of every public authority, the
constitution of a Central Information Commission
and State Information Commissions and for
matters connected therewith or incidental
thereto. It is said that good governance has
four basic components i.e, transparency,
accountability, predictability, and
participation. Thus the RTI plays an important
role in good governance, as it keeps
transparency between the government and citizens
and also keeps accountability in the functioning
of government. For knowing the complete history
behind the introduction of RTI, many learners opt
for online law certification courses, offered by
legal learning platforms.
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• Liberty included in the Right to information
• The following are the rights which citizens can
  get under the right to information
• Right to inspect works, documents, and records.
• Right to take a certified sample of the material
• Right to obtain information in the form of
  printouts.
• Right to take notes, extract information or
  certified copies of documents and records.
• This right can help a lot, especially in the
  legal profession the documents or information
  accessed through RTI is completely authentic and
  can be used as evidence.
• Objective of RTI
• The primary and topmost goal of the Right to
  information act was to empower the citizens.
  Being a citizen of a democratic country, every
  individual has the right to know information
  about what is happening in the country,
  parliament and how the representatives, chosen by
  them are working. To promote transparency and
  accountability in the working of the government.
  This also helps in solving the problem of
  Corruption, as people are free to ask for
  documents, records, press releases, and survey
  reports in form of data. This makes democracy
  works in a real and systematic way.
• Importance of Right to Information Act, 2002
• The Supreme court of India once said that the
  People are the master and the master has a right
  to know how the government, meant to serve them,
  is functioning. Thats why RTI holds such
  importance and is considered a fundamental
  right. This act also supports the freedom of
  expression and speech as, without complete
  information, a valid opinion or expression
  cannot be made. RTI acts as a tool to fight
  against corruption, and examine if the
  government representatives are meeting their
  expectations or not. This law empowers citizens
  to ask for information related to all projects
  or organizations which are being funded by the
  government.

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Amendment in RTI act in 2019 Through RTI
Amendment Act, 2019, there were certain changes
in section 13, section 16 and section 27 in the
previous act. The changes were in accord to
amend the status, salary and tenure of Central
Information Commissioners(CICs) and State
Information Commissioners. Thus, this amendment
seeks to empower the centre to decide tenure,
salary, allowances and other terms of services of
the information commissionary. This Amendment
was highly criticised and was even called the
RTI elimination Bill and a threat to
independence. This amendment is said to be an
attack on accountability and transparency of the
governments account provided by the RTI
act, Exceptions of RTI There is certain
information that does not come under the RTI and
the public cant get access to them, some
exceptions are given in the RTI act, 2005 such
as any information, whose copyright is not owned
by the state, information that is received in
confidence from a foreign government,
information that can endanger a persons life or
information that comes in way of law
enforcement. For knowing all the exceptions of
the Right to information act, learners choose
free online law certification courses, as it is
necessary to learn all this for applying for the
information in RTI. Time Period for getting
information If information asked concerns the
life or liberty of a person, then it must be
delivered within 48 hours. But in general cases,
the information asked by the applicant must be
shall be supplied within 30 days from the day
the application was received by the public
authority. If the request is sent to a different
public authority then the information will be
delayed for 5 days in both cases. Conclusion A
democratic country needs a well-informed public,
to ensure it RTI plays a vital role in this.
Also, through this RTI, the public authority
comes under the scrutiny of the public, and
citizens have the right to
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know the process of government offices. This act
has converted India from a defective democracy
to a participatory one. Through this RTI act,
many government scandals have been brought to
light and in front of the public. For law
aspirants this act, not just to handle a lawsuit
or a legal procedure of an individual but also
for themselves, is very important. Many online
legal certification course are based on such
topics to ensure that law aspirants know the
complete procedure taken under the act of RTI.