“Bringing together the right information with the right people will dramatically improve a company’s ability to develop and act on strategic business opportunities.”

– Bill Gates

The article talks about the Right to Information Act which can be used as a weapon against corruption. Corruption in the modern era is acting like a plague where every organization, judicial system, education, business, industrial, international agencies, NGOs, Bureaucracy, etc., has come under its chain just to gain social fame and recognition. From the lowest level to the topmost front, the level of corruption is at its peak and has raised alarms for the concerned authorities dealing with this issue. The Right to Information Act serves as a medium for the commoners to know the root causes of corruption and why people are involved in such crimes. There are three pillars in the Constitution of India- Judiciary, Executive, and Legislature. Corruption, whenever it occurs, dents the image of these pillars of India. The Right to Information Act (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India that sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens’ right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act 2002. We shall be discussing more in detail through this article.

The Right to Information Act serves the purpose of safeguarding the interests of the common citizens and creating general awareness among them about the events and government functioning and procedures that are taking place in society and Parliamentary and Governmental Procedures. Nowadays, the problem of corruption has become rampant in the country. Hence, it has become a need of an hour to create awareness among the common citizens highlighting the major problems and challenges that are being faced by the common citizens in the country. Major newspapers, journals, news channels, magazines, government advertisements, etc. highlight the menace of corruption in the country and how it has overall affected the situation of the common people and, most importantly, how even the lowest level worker, like peon, takes the bribe and gets involved in the process of the corruption. There are certain exceptions of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act 2005, such as National Economic Interests, Relations with Foreign States, Law Enforcement and the Judicial Process, Cabinet and Other Decision Making Documents, Trade Secrets and Commercial Confidentiality, Individuality Safety, Personal Privacy. 

Section 8(2) of the RTI Act 2005 states that an official must disclose the requested information, notwithstanding that an exemption provision or the Officials Secrets Act applies if the disclosure in the public interest outweighs the threats. The Right to Information Act is a perfect tool for the common citizens who want to know about the functioning of Governmental Procedures and the flaws and dishonest motives behind any welfare programs concerning corruption. Although the Right to Information is not included as a Fundamental Right in the Constitution of India, it protects the fundamental rights to Freedom of Expression and Speech under Article 19(1) (a) and the Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 guaranteed by the Constitution. The authorities under RTI Act 2005 are called public authorities. The Public Information Officer (PIO) or the First Appellate Authority in the public authorities performs the quasi-judicial function of deciding on the application and appeal, respectively. International Rights to Know Day is a red-letter for every citizen, which is celebrated on 28th September all over the world. RTI provides the perfect platform to maintain transparency in Civil Society and to create awareness among the citizens about the benefits of RTI.

The major problem that the citizens of the country are facing is a lack of awareness about the main objective of the RTI and what are the procedures and mediums through which an RTI can be filed. Another major issue is the lack of education among the village people as well as people of small towns defeats the purpose of filing an RTI Act among these sections of the society. Most people lack the awareness of filing an RTI Act and hence lack the knowledge of the actual cause of the Government Officials, Bureaucracy, NGOs, etc. Other major issues that RTI Act creates are the failure of electronic mediums, especially in the remote and tribal areas of the country. The people of these regions don’t know how to use electronic mediums, hence the failure of awareness among these sections of people. 

Corruption has engulfed the country with the norm of taking bribes more and more common among politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists, and people involved in various sectors such as the fishing industry, clothing industry, trade unions, commerce industry, sports sector, film industry, etc. Here the major question arises if the people lack awareness about the filing of an RTI Act and do not have enough knowledge about the filing of an RTI Act through an electronic as well as written, then how will the country achieve its objective of eradicating the corruption problem? Then, there are issues such as word limit in RTI Applications, Denial of Information on lack of producing identity proof by Applicant, and lack of knowledge among the poorest sections of the society; there is no guarantee that the applicant, when filing an RTI Application gives him/her hundred percent guarantee that whether the information gained is true or false, manipulation of documents (such as budgetary, monetary, welfare schemes, fundraising, etc done by the government).

Though there can be shortcomings in filing the RTI Act, it cannot be denied that it also has certain positive outcomes. Through an RTI Act only, we can know about the government budgetary functions, monetary policies, the positioning of the ministers in Central Government as well as various State Governments, funds and donations which are used by the government to work for the welfare of the citizens of the country, money used for the education like building colleges, money used for improving the infrastructure of education sector, it provides accountability, easy accessibility, transparency where only parliament members had the right to ask for any information to the government but with the RTI Act now the common people have the right to ask any question from the government and the medium available to them is either English or Hindi, affordability where no authority can charge more than 50/- from any section of the society per application, it is a less time consuming process where people have to seek information through but now with the help of RTI Act he can access the information quickly of any government policies, budgets, functions etc.  

The famous cases associated with the RTI Act’s success rate are Commonwealth Games Scam Case, where the Delhi Government had diverted Rs 744 Crores for the Dalit Community housing schemes. Still, on paper, it was just a mere piece to show the actual truth. Other cases are- Central Board of Secondary Education v Aditya Bandopadhyay, where it was held that there existed no exemption under the Section and answer books had to be provided to the student; Girish Ramchandra v Central Information Commission and Ors, where it was held that all details sought by the petitioner came under the ambit of this section. Hence, its disclosure has no benefit for the public interest and harms the privacy of such employees. R.Rajagopal and Anr v State of Tamil Nadu, Union of India v Association for Democratic Reforms, R.K. Jain v Union of India, and many other case laws which show the success rate of RTI Act and which have helped in providing the information regarding the functioning of Government and its welfare programs.

So the overall conclusion that can be drawn from the above discussions is that RTI Act has expanded its presence in Pan India, where people can seek any information regarding government schemes, corruption-related issues, education funding, funding in the corporate sector, judicial and bureaucratic field, in the industrial sector and many other fields which creates transparency, provides affordability, accessibility and knowledge about the Government Functionaries and the Policies. 

It cannot be denied that RTI Act has pros as well as cons, and so it cannot be denied that RTI Act has transformed the lives of the common citizens and given them the privilege of knowing about their rights and to know about what is happening in several organizations of the country. Now a larger population of people can file RTI applications at just a minimal cost of Rs 50/-; hence it will help serve the basic purpose of combating the corruption which has spread all over the country from the bottom to the top level. 

However, at the same time, it cannot be denied that there is still a lack of essential awareness of RTI Application filing among the poorest sections of society. Also, it cannot be denied that RTI Act gives a full guarantee that the information provided is correct and many other problems and so the Government, in this regard, can improve the proceedings regarding the filing of RTI Applications, create awareness among the common citizens about the benefits of RTI Act, provide easy and accessible methods for filing RTI Act, etc. Only then the real purpose of the RTI Act to fight against corruption be fulfilled.