Supreme Court criticises govt for non-reply to Jairam Ramesh’s plea on changes in RTI Act
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Court, in Jan. 2020, requested Centre to file reply to plea, which contended that RTI Amendment Act of 2019 and its Rules cripple CIC’s objectivity, independence
The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the Union authorities for having not filed a reply for over a 12 months to a petition by parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh difficult the amendments made to the Right to Information Act.
The courtroom, in January 2020, requested the Centre to file its reply to Mr. Ramesh’s plea that the amendments gave the federal government unparalleled powers to dictate the tenure, salaries and repair situations of the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners in accordance to its “whims and fancies”.
“The notice was issued in January, 2020! What have you been doing? The vires of the RTI Act have been challenged,” a Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah requested the federal government attorneys.
Two weeks time
The Bench gave the federal government two weeks to file its reply.
Mr. Ramesh, by way of advocate Sunil Fernandes, has contended that the RTI Amendment Act of 2019 and its Rules cripple the objectivity and independence of the Central Information Commission (CIC), the highest adjudicatory physique underneath the Act, by bringing underneath the yoke of the federal government.
The petition has argued that the very objective of the Act, which is “a salutary piece of legislation aimed at promoting transparency in public administration and empowering the common citizen”, is denuded when the salaries and tenure of the knowledge commissioners rely on the sheer pleasure of the federal government. The authorities and its varied businesses are events in each case filed earlier than the CIC.
“The decision of the Central Government is binding upon the Information Commissioners. This allows unbridled and uncanalised discretionary power to the Central Government that jeopardises the independence of Information Commissioners. Given that post retirement benefits, pensions and allowances are not explicitly in these rules, the Central Government is granted absolute power to change these from time to time,” the petition has stated.
The Amendment Act acquired the President’s assent on August 1, 2019.
Mr. Ramesh has challenged the varied amendments, together with those which change the sooner mounted tenure of 5 years for central and States’ data commissioners to “a tenure to be prescribed by the Central Government”.
Similarly, the petition has challenged Section 3(c) of the Amendment Act by which the Centre has “absolute powers” to prescribe the salaries, allowances and phrases and situations of the State data commissioners. Their salaries have been beforehand mounted on par with that of Election Commissioners and State Chief Secretaries.
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