Transparency activists have always applauded and given credit to the Supreme Court of India for its outstanding role in recognising the fact that Right to Information to Government information is a fundamental right of its Citizens under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution of India.
The first landmark pronouncement in this respect was made by Justice Mathew in State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain (1975) 4 SCC 428 wherein he stated, “In a government of responsibility like ours, where all the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can be but few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearing. Their right to know, which is derived from the concept of freedom of speech, though not absolute, is a factor which should make one wary when secrecy is claimed for transactions which can at any rate have no repercussion on public security”.
Effectively, the Apex Court signalled that the only bar on information should be one which would impact public security. Repeated pronouncements were made in SP Gupta, Rajagopal, ADR, Dinesh Trivedi and other landmark cases reiterating the ideology and principle, recognising the right to information as a fundamental right flowing from Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India. The Right to Information Act, 2005 hereinafter referred to as “RTI Act” has codified this right and also listed certain areas for which the information may be denied; and these exempted areas were on the same lines as that spelled out in Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India. Article 19 of the Constitution states:
Article 19: Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc
(1) All citizens shall have the right-
(a) to freedom of speech and expression;
(b) to assemble peaceably and without arms;
(c) to form associations or unions, co-operative societies;
(d) to move freely throughout the territory of India;
(e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; 12 [and];
(f) [omitted]
(g) to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.
(2) Nothing in subclause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.
The Parliament of India recognized and codified this fundamental right of citizens in the year 2005 in which it clearly laid out that there would be ten exemptions instead of one as pronounced by Justice Mathew in Raj Narain case stated hereinabove. Justice Ravindra Bhat of Delhi High Court, impressively, captured the spirit of the RTI Act in his judgement in the Bhagat Singh vs. CIC WP (c) no. 3114/2007 on 3 December, 2007 when he stated:
“13. Access to information, under Section 3 of the Act, is the rule and exemptions under Section 8, the exception. Section 8 being a restriction on this fundamental right, must, therefore, be strictly construed. It should not be interpreted in a manner as to shadow the very right itself. Under Section 8, exemption from releasing information is granted if it would impede the process of investigation or the prosecution of the offenders. It is apparent that the mere existence of an investigation process cannot be a ground for refusal of the information; the authority withholding information must show satisfactory reasons as to why the release of such information would hamper the investigation process. Such reasons should be germane, and the opinion of the process being hampered should be reasonable and based on some material. Sans this consideration, Section 8(1)(h) and other such provisions would become the haven for dodging demands for information.
14. A rights based enactment is akin to a welfare measure, like the Act, should receive a liberal interpretation. The contextual background and history of the Act is such that the exemptions, outlined in Section 8, relieving the authorities from the obligation to provide information, constitute restrictions on the exercise of the rights provided by it. Therefore, such exemption provisions have to be construed in their terms; there is some authority supporting this view (See Nathi Devi v. Radha Devi Gupta 2005 (2) SCC 201; B. R. Kapoor v. State of Tamil Nadu 2001 (7) SCC 231 and V. Tulasamma v. Sesha Reddy 1977 (3) SCC 99). Adopting a different approach would result in narrowing the rights and approving a judicially mandated class of restriction on the rights under the Act, which is unwarranted.”
The RTI Act categorically states t…
