Govt sought relaxation of rules in Parliament to pass RTI Amendment bill: Activist

The government had written to the Rajya Sabha Chairman and Lok Sabha Speaker to not refer the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, to a department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee, an activist who inspected the files under the RTI Act said Monday.

Activist Anjali Bhardwaj had sought details of files related to the passing of Right to Information (Amendment) Act which made drastic changes in the tenure and the salary structure of adjudicators of RTI matters, the Information Commissioners, triggering allegations of cutting down their autonomy.

She was allowed to inspect the files related to the bill.

In her statement, Bhardwaj said Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh had written to the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman, seeking relaxation of the provisions requiring prior notice to be given for introducing a bill and circulation of bills to members before it is introduced.

She also said that the minister wrote to the Speaker and the Chairman requesting that the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, not be referred to a Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee.

"The amendment, and the subsequent rules promulgated by the government in October 2019, destroy the insulation provided to information commissions in the original Act to enable them to function independently," she said.