SC asks Centre, State information Commissions to ensure proactive disclosures under RTI Act

The Supreme Court has issued guidelines to Central and State Information Commissions for proper implementation of Section 4 of the RTI Act requiring public authorities to make regular proactive disclosures of information through their websites and other means.

A bench comprising CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala directed the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions to continuously monitor the implementation of the mandate of Section 4 of the Act as required under guidelines issued from time to time by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, mandates that all public authorities will make constant endeavour to disclose information suo motu to the public at regular intervals using the internet and other means. The objective of enacting such a provision was to ensure that information is
readily provided by government departments themselves and the public have minimum resort to filing RTI applications.

The PIL petitioner, KC Jain - an advocate and RTI activist, had submitted before the top court that only 33 per cent of the public authorities have got
transparency audits conducted in the last four years, thus indicating that proactive disclosures were not made in accordance with the law.

“We direct that the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions shall continuously monitor the implementation of the mandate of Section 4 of the Act….. For this purpose, the Commissioners will also be entitled to issue recommendations under sub Section (5) of Section 25 to public authorities for taking necessary steps for complying with the provisions of the Act,” ordered the Supreme Court, while disposing of the public interest litigation.