Amendment in RTI Act: Submission of views to the parliamentary committee
23 Sep, 2013The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has published an advertisement in the leading newspapers inviting comments on the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to keep political parties out of the ambit of the RTI Act and also nullify the June 2013 decision of the Central Information Commission which declared six national political parties as public authorities having the duty to give access to information to people directly. The Department-related Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice is examining the RTI Amendment Bill thanks to public pressure supported by many MPs and political parties which prevented a hasty vote on it. Individuals and organisations have 15 days from now (until 6th October, 2013) to send their views and comments on the RTI Amendment Bill to this Committee.
Please send your comments on the Bill - either in favour of or against keeping political parties within the ambit of the RTI Act. If you wish to appear before the Committee personally, please indicate this in your communication to the officer of the Secretariat. Currently, a person is required to send comments by email or by post (two copies must be sent) in English or Hindi.
CONTACT 011- 23035365 Fax – 23016784 or email at rs-pers@sansad@nic.in
LANGUAGE OF SUBMISSION:
It is most unfortunate that the Parliamentary Committee vetting the RTI Amendment Bill permits submissions to be made only in English and Hindi on such an important issue which affects every citizen of India. There are at least four problems with this blinkered approach:
First, the Constitution gives official recognition to 21 languages other than Hindi in the Eighth Schedule. The number of persons speaking languages other than Hindi easily outnumbers people who are primarily Hindi-speakers. According to the 2001 Census data only 41% of the citizens in India speak Hindi. A little more than 10% of the citizenry is familiar with English as a primary or secondary language. These statistics imply, close to one half of the population will be prevented from making submissions on the RTI Amendment Bill merely because of the language barrier.
Second, when Electronic Voting Machines mention names of candidates in English and the local official language of the State for the purpose of elections to Parliament, is there any justification for limiting submissions to the Parliamentary Committee to two languages only? If languages are important only for the purpose of electing MPs but not for collecting their views about making or amending laws to inform these very MPs can India claim to be a true democracy where everybody has equal space and opportunity for participating in the law-making processes?
Third, many members of the Parliamentary Committee (see 2nd attachment) are themselves elected from or live in States where neither Hindi nor English is spoken by a majority of the citizens. Yet, there is no record in the public domain of any of these MPs demanding that opportunities be created for their brothers and sisters to send their comments on such an important issue in the official language(s) of the State.
Fourth, Article 350 of the Constitution gives every citizen the right to make representations to any authority of the Central or State Government in any of the official languages used at the Central or State level. The Parliamentary Committee must recognise and honour this important constitutional principle in the context of making or amending laws and create opportunities for people to send their comments on the RTI Amendment Bill (3rd attachment) in any of the languages recognised in the Eighth Schedule.
HOW CAN THIS INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY BE REMEDIED?:
It is high time MPs raised the issue of equality of people's access to the Committee's proceedings in terms of official languages used in India. The Committee has a constitutional duty to take the following steps to ensure equality of access to all citizens who wish to submit their opinion about whether political parties should or should not be covered by the RTI Act:
1) Advertisements for submissions on the RTI (Amendment) Bill 2013 must be published in the leading newspapers of all States in the local official languages;
2) Citizens must be informed of their right to submit views and comments on this Bill in any of the 22 The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. languages recognised in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
3) The present time limit of 15 days for sending comments must be extended to at least 30 days to enable people to send their comments in various languages after holding local level consultations.
4) Translating the advertisement into the 22 The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. official languages and translating back the submissions received from the people into the English and Hindi for the MPs on the Committee is not a difficult task for the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. They have a team of professional translators who provide simultaneous translation of speeches of MPs in every Parliament session. These people could be gainfully employed when Parliament is in recess.
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee can be contacted at mobile No.: 094 22 The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. 439990 and by post at
The Chairperson,
Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice
Rajya Sabha Secretariat, # 22 The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (19 of 1923), and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. 2, 2nd Floor, Parliament House Annexe; New Delhi - 110001
Email address: shantharam.naik@sansad.nic.in; Fax: 011-23016784
Venkatesh Nayak