RTI Act amendment without consulting people is contempt of assurance given in Parliament

In a letter to Leader of Opposition in the Rajya sabha, Arun Jaitley, Right to Information (RTI) Act activist Commodore (Retired) Lokesh Batra has cautioned that amending the RTI Act without consulting the people of the nation, would be a contempt of an assurance given by the government in Parliament.

Batra claims in his letter that on July 5, 2009, the then Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had assured Parliament in a written response to a question that the 'Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and social activists' would be consulted before any amendment to the RTI Act, 2005.

The same minister had reiterated his stand in the Rajya Sabha on August 25 2010, Batra adds.

He says that the government has erred in introducing the "Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2013" in the Lok Sabha to counter the decision of the CIC declaring six political parties as Public authorities under the RTI Act, 2005.

He warns that this proposed amendment can bring similar arguments from all other NGOs, private bodies who get substantially funded from tax-payer money. Even the corporate bodies working on projects on PPP models can take the same stand.

"We recognise if political parties are being truthful about their accounts/ funding, they would have gone along with CIC decision. They could have even go in a writ to the courts. As you are aware, in the past, CIC decisions have been quashed by the courts," Batra says in his letter.

"In the instant case, we cannot see any reason which justifies any amendment to the RTI Act, 2005 by the government without consulting all the stakeholders and citizenry at large that include 'Non-Governmental Organisations and Social activists'. This can be done by referring the proposed amendment to the parliamentary standing committee," he adds.