Peoples’ Right to Information in India
The Right to Information Act, passed in 2005, guarantees the citizens of India the right to question their government, and ensures that people no longer have to rely solely on elections to hold public functionaries accountable. Every year, nearly 6 million information applications are filed across the country, making the RTI Act the most extensively used transparency legislation globally. National assessments have shown that a large proportion of these applications are filed by the poorest and the most marginalized.
The power of the RTI Act can be gauged by the great lengths to which institutions have gone to shield themselves from scrutiny under the law. Scores of citizens across the country have been threatened, attacked and at least 70 have been murdered for using the law to access information exposing corruption and abuse of power. The backlash has not been limited to attacks on users of the law. The legislation itself has not been spared. The latest attempt to subvert peoples’ right to information is the RTI Amendment Act, which undermines the autonomy of information commissions.