Right to Information Act (RTI) 2015 and Official Secret Act (OSA) 1923

1. RIGHT TO INFORMATION
ACT 2005
BY MUKESH PRADHAN
H00MAJMC20210073

2. NEED FOR THE ACT
• To become model democratic country.
• To promote transparency and accountability in the working of every
public authority.
• To deal with corruption.
• To empower citizens.

3. IMPORTANT OF RTI FOR JOURNALISTS
• The Act has empowered the journalists find out and report uncover,
sensitive, and hidden information from concerned govt. body.
• This has allowed journalists and even concerned citizens to ask
questions about the state of affairs, consequentially promoting
accountability and transparency within the government.
• To stop wrongdoing, illegal practices and corruption practiced by
different public authority.

4. RTI MOVEMENT AND ARUNA ROY
• Right to Information (RTI) movement was
initiated by social activist, professor, civil servant
and founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
(MKSS), Aruna Roy.
• The MKSS began by fighting for fair and equal
wages for workers which shaped and evolved into
a struggle for the enactment of India's Right to
Information Act, and finally in the year 2005, the
RTI Act was passed in parliament.

6. IMPORTANT SECTIONS
•Sec 1 (1): This Act may be called the Right to Information Act, 2005.
•Sec 1 (2): It extends to the whole of India.
•Sec 2 (a): "appropriate Government" means in relation to a public
authority which is established, constituted, owned, controlled or
substantially financed by funds provided directly or indirectly by Central
or State Government.
• Sec 2 (e) "competent authority"

7. SEC 2 (F): INFORMATION MEANS

8. • Sec 2 (h): From public authority
A. Constitutional Bodies
B. Statutory Bodies
C. Body owned, controlled, or substantially
financed by Government including state-
funded NGOs)
FROM WHOM CAN WE ACCESS?

9. BUT WHY US THEN?
In the year 2010, the Supreme Court
gave an argument that “ when the
Indian cricket team playing, they
officially representing BBCI but when
they go and play in some other
country, they using the name of
India. Secondly, cricket in India
involves the emotions of many
peoples, and even the smallest
decisions by organization such as the
BCCI can impact huge populations.

10. • Sec 3: Right to Information, all citizens shall have the right to information.
• Sec 4 (1): Obligations of public authorities.
Maintain all its
records, duly
catalogued and indexed
and computerised them
within reasonable time.
Mandatary publishing
of basic information
(directory of officers,
functions performed by
them, categories of
documents held by it
etc.) and regular
updating .

11. Sec 4 (2): Suo Moto Disclosure
Sec 5: Designation of Public Information Officers:
Central Public Information Officers or State Public
Information Officers, as the case may be, in all
administrative units or offices.
And each sub-divisional level or other subdistrict level
as a Central Assistant Public Information Officer or a
State Assistant Public Information Officer.

12. THE PROCESS
• Sec 6 (1): Make a request in writing/ electronic means in English/ Hindi /
official language of the area with fees specifying the particulars of the
information sought.
• Sec 6 (2): the applicant shall not be required to give any reason for
requesting the information.
• Sec 6 (3): Information is to be provided within 30 days (48 hours where life
or liberty is involved) in Sec (7) (1).
• Sec 7 (1): The period can extend to 35 days where request is given to
APIO.

13. Right Conferred on Citizens
• Sec 6 (1): Choosing medium and language of request
• Sec 6 (2): No stating any reason for requesting information
• Sec 7 (3) details of further fees
• Sec 7 (5): All fees are waived for below poverty line (BPL)
• Sec 7 (8): Knowledge of reasons for rejection
• Making of complaint to CIC/SIC

14. EXEMPTION FROM DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION [SECTION 8 (1)]

15. • Sec 8 (2): compels government to disclose information related to Official Secret
Act 1923, “if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected
interests”
• Sec 9: Grounds for rejection to access in certain cases. Such as if it involve an
infringement of copyright subsisting in a person other than the State.
• Sec 11: Third party information can be provided, except in the case of trade or
commercial secrets protected by law,

16. THE CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION (SEC 12 & 13)
• The Central Information Commission shall consist of—
(a) the Chief Information Commissioner; and (b) such number of Central
Information Commissioners, not exceeding ten.
• The Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners shall be
appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee consisting
of—
(i) the Prime Minister, who shall be the Chairperson of the committee;
(ii) the Leader of Opposition in the LokSabha; and
(iii) a Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.

17. • The Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners shall be persons of
eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology,
social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance.
• The Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner shall not be a
Member of Parliament or Member of the Legislature of any State or Union territory as the
case may be, or hold any other office of profit or connected with any political party or
carrying on any business or pursuing any profession.
• The Chief Information Commissioner shall hold office and shall not be eligible for
reappointment.
• Every Information Commissioner shall hold office or till he attains the age of sixty-five years,
whichever is earlier, and shall not be eligible for reappointment as such Information
Commissioner.
• The Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner may, at any time, by
writing under his hand addressed to the President, resign from his office.
THE CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION (SEC 12 & 13)

18. • Sec 14: Removal of Central Chief Information Commissioner or
Information Commissioner.
• Sec 15 & 16:The State Information Commission.
• Sec 17: Removal of State Chief Information Commissioner or
Information Commissioner.

19. SEC 19: WHERE TO APPEAL ?
• The first appeal is made to an officer within the
organization, who is senior in rank to the PIO. (and answer
should be provided within 30 days)
• The second appeal is made to the information
commission. (no time limit for response).

20. SEC 20 PENALTIES
• it shall impose a penalty of two hundred
and fifty rupees each day till application is
received or information is furnished, so
however, the total amount of such penalty
shall not exceed twenty-five thousand
rupees.

21. • Sec 22: provides for its primacy provisions of other
laws, including OSA. This gives the RTI Act an
overriding effect, notwithstanding anything
inconsistent with the provisions of OSA 1923.
• Sec 24: mandates even security and intelligence
organization to disclose information on corruption and
human right violation.

22. RTI (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2009
• The CIC and IC (both central &
state level) will hold office for a
term of 5 years
• The salary of CIC and IC (at the
Central) will be equivalent to the
salary paid to the CEC and EC,
respectively, And at the state
level it was equivalent to EC
and chief secretary to he state
govt. respectively
• The bill removes the provision
and states that the central govt.
will the term of the office for
both CIC and IC.
• the bill removes the provisions
and state that the salaries,
allowances, and other terms and
conditions of service of the
central and state CIC and IC will
be determined by the central
govt.

23. Landmark Cases related to RTI
• Central Board of Secondary Education v. Aditya Bandopadhyay 2011
• Issue
• The question, in this case, was whether a student’s right to information under The Act involves
the right to request and evaluate his answer sheets and take certified copies with him? The
Central Board of Secondary Education stated that the reason it held the information is that there
existed a fiduciary relationship and hence, came under the exemption provisions of Section 8(1)
of the RTI Act.
• Judgment
• Fiduciary Relationship is defined as one party having confidence in the other party with regards to
his affairs, business, and or transactions. An examining body cannot be in a fiduciary relationship
with reference to students who take the exam. Therefore, there existed no exemption under the
Section, and answer books had to be provided to the student.

24. • R.K. Jain v. Union of India 2013
• Facts
• In this case, the petitioner applied to the Information Officer to produce copies of all sheets
and correspondence pages of a file regarding Ms. Jyoti Balasundram, a Judicial Member of
the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, under the RTI Act. The Central
Information Officer denied the file on the grounds that personal information was exempt
under Section 8(1)(j). The petitioner filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.
• Issue
1.Whether the ACR of an officer comes under personal information?
2.Does public interest override the privacy of the person?
• Judgment
• The Court held that information regarding charges, penalties, or sanctions of an employee
and records of such nature was necessarily a matter between the employee and his
employer and the disclosure of which has no public interest but would result in a threat to
the privacy of a person. The Court also upheld that if the Information Officer or the appellate
authority feels that the public interest is justified the disclosure of such information but the
petitioner cannot claim those details as a matter of right.

25. OFFICIAL SECRET ACT
1923
BY MUKESH PRADHAN
H00MAJMC20210073

26. History
• OSA has its roots in the British colonial era. The Indian Official Secrets
Act, 1889.
• This was brought with the objective to sensor the voice of a large
number of newspapers who were opposing the British policies.
• It was amended and made more stringent in the form of the Indian
Official Secret Act, 1904.

27. New Version in 1923
• The Indian Official secret Act 1923 was extended to all
matters of secrecy and confidentiality in governance in the
country.
• This is India’s anti-espionage act from the British period.
• According to this Act, helping the enemy state can be in the
form of communicating a sketch, plan, model of an official
secret, or of official codes or passwords, to the enemy.

28. IT BROADLY DEALS WITH TWO ASPECTS
1. Spying or espionage, covered under section 3. Secret information
can be any
Official
Code Password Sketch Plan
Model Article Note
Document/
Information
Note: Sec 3 only tells the form of secret. Doesn't tell, what is considered as secret.

29. 2. Disclosure of other secret information of the Govt, under Section 5.
under it both the person communicating the information and the
person receiving the information can be punished.
3. Punishments under the Act range from three years to life
imprisonment.
4. Misuse: Sec 5 which deals with potential breaches of national
security, makes it a punishable offence to hare information that
may help an enemy state.
5. But it is used for booking journalists when they publicise
information that cause embracement to the government or the
armed forces.
6. Sec 6: Unauthorised use of uniforms.

30. RTI v/s OSA
• RTI wins the battles: Section 22 of the RTI Act provides for its primacy
provisions on other laws, including OSA. This gives the RTI Act an overriding
effect, notwithstanding anything inconsistent with the provisions of OSA.
• RTI Sec 24 mandates even security and intelligence organisation to disclose
information on corruption and human violations.
• RTI Sec 8(2) which compels government to disclose information “ if public
interest in disclose outweighs the harm to protected interest”.
• OSA takes the war: however, under section 8 and 9 of the RTI act, The
government can refuse information. Effectively, if the government classifies
a documents as “ Secret” under OSA that document can be kept outside
the ambit of the RTI Act.

31. MAJOR COMMITTEES TO CHANGE THE OSA
• The second press commission of India suggested the removal of
Section 5 from the official secret Act of India 1923.
• 2nd Administrative Reform Commission (ARC) recommended that OSA
to be repealed and replaced with a chapter in the national security
act, containing provisions relating to OSA.
• 2015, the govt. had set up a committees to look into provisions or the
OSA in light to the RTI Act. And recommended that the OSA to be
made more transparent and in line with the RTI Act.

32. KASHMIR TIMES JOURNALIST IFTIKHAR GILANI
• In 2002, Iftikhar Gilani, a journalist of Jammu and Kashmir was
charged under the Official Secrets Act for releasing secret
documents. After the investigations and procedures, it was
found that the published documents were not of secret nature
and are easily available in open sources. In 2004, the case was
withdrawn by the government and Mr Gilani was released.

33. THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS SANTANU SAIKA
• In 2009, Santanu Saika, a journalist of the Financial
Express published an extract from a cabinet note, and
The CBI filed case against Saikia, under OSA 1923 and
arrested him but after 10 year, The Delhi High Court
discharged the Saika that the publication of the
disinvestment document was unlikely to affect the
sovereignty and integrity of India or the security
of the state or friendly relations with foreign states.

34. UNION OF INDIA V/S THE HINDU
• The reports published by these newspaper agencies suggested that the
negotiating team and Ministry of Defense opposed the Rafale deal, and the
government did not follow the due procedure of procurement. The government
claims that these newspaper agencies have violated the norms of the said Act by
publishing the reports and documents related to deal with France to buy 36
Rafale jets.
• The Supreme Court in the ‘Rafale deal’ case, gave the ruling in the favour of
newspaper agencies to promote the RTI Act and observed that “whenever there
will be a conflict of interest between the two laws, the RTI Act will supersede the
OSA.” The Supreme Court also opined that the Act did not provide liberty to
commit unscrupulous activities and corruption. These actions of the government
are against the provisions of RTI and freedom of speech and expression under
Article 19 of the Constitution of India.

35. SOME OTHER CASES
• ISRO spy case targeting Scientist S. Nambi Narayan
• Former diplomate Madhuri Gupta
• General V.K Singh

36. • The second press commission of India suggested the removal of -------
------from the official secret Act of India 1923.
1. Sec 5
2. Sec 8
3. Sec 11
4. Sec 14

37. THANK YOU