Grounds of Rejection of an RTI

Grounds of Rejection

It is imperative to know the grounds on which an RTI can be rejected.  The RTI Act lays down the grounds on which and RTI can be rejected under Section 8(1), Section 9, Section 11 and Section 24. 

An Application can be rejected if it is incomplete in any respect.

Section 8(1)

Under Section 8(1), an application can be rejected in case of disclosure of information which:

a) would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence;

b) has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;

c) would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;

d) includes commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

e) would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law 

enforcement or security purposes;

f) would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;

 

g) is information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

h) is information received in confidence from foreign Government;

Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers;

i) The explanations given by the Council of Ministers to not provide the information has to be made public after the completion of the matter.

Further, matters which come under the exemptions specified shall also be not disclosed. 

Information which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy will not be disclosed unless the Central Public Information Officer or any other appellate authority is satisfied that it is in public interest to disclose the information.

Section 9

Under Section 9, an application can be rejected if:

Without affecting to the provisions of section 8, a Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer may reject a request for information which would involve an infringement of copyright subsisting in a person other than the State.

Section 11

Under Section 11, an application can be rejected if:

Where a Central Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer intends to disclose the information supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, then the officer within five days from the receipt of the request, give a written notice to such third party of the request and invite the third party to make a submission in writing or orally, regarding whether the information should be disclosed, and such submission will be considered while taking a decision about disclosure of information:

Provided that except in the case of trade or commercial secrets protected by law, disclosure may be allowed if the public interest in disclosure outweighs in importance any possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party.

Section 24

Security and Intelligence organizations are exempted from this Act

But the information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded under this and in the case of information sought for is in respect of allegations of violation of human rights, the information shall only be provided after the approval of the Central Information Commission and such information shall be provided within forty-five days from the date of the receipt of request.

The Central Government may include or exclude any intelligence or security organization by a notification in the official gazette and nothing specified in this section will be applicable to such organisations. But information in relation to corruption and human rights violation shall not be excluded and information sought in respect of violation of human rights will be provided after the approval of the State Information Commission.

  

Monetary Aspects of RTI

Monetary Aspects

Section 6(I) of the RTI act deals with the fee structure and charges levied on the applicant and other conditions with regard to such.

Every application is charged with a fee of Rs.10/-. Such application is to not exceed a maximum of five hundred words excluding the annexes and the addresses of the authority and the applicant, however no application may be rejected on account of exceeding the word limit alone.

Fee Structure

The fee structure is as follows:

A) Each paper obtained of size A3 or lower costs Rs.2/- per page.

B) For larger sizes the actual cost of the photocopy is charged.

C) Samples and models obtained are also charged at actual cost.

D) Discs or Floppy discs cost Rs.50/- per disc.

E) Publications are issued at the rate of Rs.2/- per copy per page.

F) Inspection of the records is free for the first hour and every subsequent hour draws Rs.5/- per hour.

G) In case of information sent through post, the postal charges are added to the total fee from the applicant.

Mode of Payments

The following modes of payment are accepted:

A) In cash, addressed to the concerned Public Authority, against a proper receipt issued.

B) By DD, cheque or Indian Postal Order addressed to “ Accounts Officer of the Public Authority ”.

C) Or by Electronic means, addressed to the “ Accounts Officer of the Public Authority ”, if such facility is available.

It must be noted that there is an exemption to the payment of fee to all persons belonging to the below poverty line category, provided that such a certification issued by an appropriate Government authorising the status is filed along with the application.

Procedure to File RTIs

How and where to file an RTI

“Nothing could be more axiomatic for a democracy than the principle of exposing the process of government to relentless public criticism and scrutiny.” (Francis E. Rourke, 1960, p. 691).

The RTI came into existence in 2005 and its main aim is to empower the citizens with information about the institutions that influence and control them and at the same times make these institutions accountable to the public for their actions so as to ensure transparency in their functioning. RTI is a part of the fundamental rights of every citizen under article 19 and the importance of the right to know has been expounded by the Supreme Court as early as in 1976 in the case of Raj Narain vs. State of UP.  The court said that that people cannot speak or express themselves unless they know. In a democratic country it becomes all the more important because people are the masters and they need to be informed of the way in which the government is serving them. To ensure that the objective of this act is not defeated the procedure of filing an RTI is also very simple and easy so as to enable even a layman to enforce its rights of having the required information.

The two major questions which have to be addressed when it comes to the procedural aspect of RTI are as follows-
a)How to file an RTI?,
b)Where To file an RTI,
c)On what grounds can the RTI Be rejected?
First of all one can get the entire act on the website of Department of Personnel and Training www.persmin.nic.in and they can even be accessed on the RTI website http://righttoinformation.gov.in/rtiact.html.
The two important questions of how to file an RTI and where to file an RTI are discussed below.

How to file an RTI?

There is no specific procedure of filing an RTI application. . Your application can even be on a simple plain paper However, many states and some ministries and departments have prescribed formats. You should apply in these formats. Please read rules of respective states to know. Applicants however need to ensure that their contact details including name and correspondence address appear on the application.

Where To file an RTI?

Citizens can exercise their right to information by filing an application with a Central Public Information Officer (CPIO). All the administrative levels of the government will have a CPIO who will give the required information to people who file an application or a query under the RTI Act.

But the applicants should not file the application under the portal
https://rtionline.gov.in/, for public authorities under the State Governments, including Government of NCT Delhi because if done so their application would be returned without the refund amount.
Another vital point of which the people should have the knowledge of is that who will be providing them with the relevant information when they file an RTI. So with regards to this one or more officers in every government department have actually been  designated as public information officers (PIO) who are given the function of nodal officers. They have to collect the information which are sought by the people from various wings of their concerned department and they provide you the requested information. Besides that certain officers have also been appointed as the Assisted Public Information Officers to aid in the task of supplying the relevant information.

To locate the concerned public information officer one can refer to the list of PIO’s/APIO’s and Appellate authorities for all center and state department ministries available online at www.rti.gov.in. Finally after the filing of the application you should receive the information within 30 days. In case you have filed your application with Assistant PIO then information has to be made available within 35 days. In case the matter to which the information pertains affects the life and liberty of an individual, information has to be made available in 48 hours.

Thus since the procedure of filing an RTI application is not at all cumbersome, it should be availed by all the citizens because it empowers us an individual and at the same it also helps to ensure that the institutions of the government which are meant to serve us are working  efficiently. Therefore this right has actually helped to fill the communication gap between the public authorities and the individual and it has been all the more easier by the simple procedure of filing an RTI.