Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
30-November-2011 14:16 IST
The RTI Act provides that a request for information may be rejected if it is covered under exemption clauses of Section 8 or Section 9. Also, information pertaining to a third party is to be provided only after giving third party a notice, who may, in turn, object to providing such information.
The Act has detailed provisions for dealing with cases where the desired information is not provided or cases where information is not supplied within the specified time period. As per section 20 of the Act, Information commissions have been authorized to impose penalty on defaulting public information officers and they may also direct initiation of disciplinary proceedings against such officers. The Central Information Commission imposed penalty on 48 officials in 2008-09; 154 officials in 2009-10; 273 officials in 2010-2011 and 148 officials as of 26.11.2011. Disciplinary action was taken by public authorities against 9 officials in 2008-09, 33 in 2009-10 and 432 in 2010-11. These include the cases where either the information was not supplied or was supplied with delay.
As per details provided by public authorities to the Central Information Commission (CIC), details regarding requests for information which were received under the RTI Act and requests rejected during last three years are given below:
Aspects | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 |
Opening balance of RTI requests (as on 1st April of the reporting year) | 32,792 | 97,474 | 1,37,771@ |
Number of requests received during the year | 329,728 | 5,29,274 | 4,17,955@ |
Total number of requests at the end of the reporting year | 362,520 | 6,26,748 | 5,55,726@ |
| | | | |
Number of Requests rejected | 23,954 | 34,057 | 21,621@ |
Requests rejected as a percentage of requests received during the year | 7.26% | 6.43% | 5.20% |
Requests rejected as percentage of total number of requests at the end of reporting year | 6.60% | 5.43% | 3.89% |
| | | | |
@ Figures include public authorities which did not report for some quarters.
No proposal to amend the RTI Act, 2005 is under the consideration of the Government.
This information was given by Shri V. Narayanasamy Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and PMO in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
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RS/PKM
RTI exemptions limit disclosure and require third party notice; penalties and disciplinary action follow for non compliance. Requests may be refused under the Right to Information Act if covered by exemption provisions and third party information is disclosed only after prior notice; Information Commissions may impose penalties under Section 20 and direct disciplinary proceedings for failures or delays, and administrative returns report numbers and percentages of requests received, rejected, and penalties or disciplinary actions taken.
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