February 8, 2022

A session on “Right to Information Act 2005” for the students of Consumer Forum Association was conducted on Feb 08, 2022 by Mrs. Asha Kiran, Practicing Advocate of Mangalore Court. The main objective of the session was to understand the conceptual framework of Right to Information Act 2005 and to understand the procedures for filing an effective RTI application. The resource person began her session by defining the meaning, objectives and features of the Right to Information Act 2005. She explained that the RTI Act 2005 aimed to provide legal right to the citizens to obtain information under the control of public authorities, and thereby provide transparency and accountability in governance to India’s citizens. She explained about the various procedures to file an RTI and the time limit to seek information in normal course and also when the information to be sought concerns the life or liberty of a person. In her presentation, she also explained the details of the Act pertaining to the rights of a citizen; the types of information s/he can obtain under this Act; the types of records that can be obtained; the obligations of public authorities; the roles and responsibilities of Public Information Officers (PIO) and Assistant Public Information Officers (APIO), Central and State Information Commissioners; exemptions; the time period for providing information; rejection of information request; the fees applicable etc. She also described two cases namely Jiju Lukose vs State of Kerala and CBSE vs Aditya. Further, she explained the roles and responsibilities of Information Officers in the three tiers of the Information Access Regime. At the first level are the officers who have been designated to receive applications or information requests from people. At the second level are the senior officers who have been designated to look into those cases where citizens’ requests for information have been denied. At the third level is the independent State Information Commission set up to look into those cases where citizens are dissatisfied with the decision made at the second level (i.e. the Departmental Appellate Authority). At the end, she stated the amount of penalty, if, in case, the Public Information Officer defaults in providing information to the public. 27 students benefitted through this online session.