PROJECT PAPER

THE UNIVERSITY OF BURDWAN

AMEX LAW COLLEGE

TOPIC – POWERS AND FUNCTIONS OF INFORMATION

COMMISSION UNDER RTI ACT

NAME : SUPRIYO BISWAS

ROLL NO. : ALC/2021-03/83
COURSE : 3 YEAR LLB (HONS)
SEMESTER : 1ST
SESSION – 2021-2023
PAPER : RTI (3.1.5)
 INDEX
SERIAL NO. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.
1. INTRODUCTIONS 1

2. SALIENT FEATURES OF 1
SECTION 12 OF THE RTI ACT

3. POWER AND FUNCTIONS OF 2

INFORMATION COMMISSION

4. APPEAL 3

5. PENALTIES 3

6. SALIENT FEATURES OF THE RTI 3

(AMMENDMENT) ACT, 2019

7. TENURE 3

8. SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES 4

9. OTHER SERVICE CONDITIONS 4

10. DISCRETIONARY POWER TO 4

RELAX APPLICABILITY OF
RULES

11. DISCRETIONARY POWER TO 4

DECIDE OTHER MATTERS
12. 2019 RTI RULES CRITICISM 5
w.r.t INFORMATION
COMMISSION

13. CONCLUSION 6

14. REFERENCES 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT :
I am really grateful to my supervisor Prof. Riddhi Karmakar for guiding me in completing
this wonderful project work on “Powers and functions of Information Commission under
RTI Act”. Without his continuous support this project work could not have been
completed within the scheduled time.
I am also thankful to our Principal Prof. Imroj Ahamed for his constant inspiration and
academic support made available to us through arrangement of online classes even
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I express my sincere gratitude and indebtedness also to all other respected teachers of
our college for imparting academic guidance through online classes regularly as well as
via phone call, E-mail etc.
I must also record my gratitude to my classmates who have always been so cooperative
through discussion on academic matters via mobile phone, whatsapp, email etc. during
the hard time of Corona Virus.
The office staff of the college also deserve my cordial thanks as they have always been
helpful to respond to any official query.
However, despite utmost care, if there is any lapse or deficiency, I am solely
responsible.

Supriyo Biswas
Introduction:-
Section 12 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 deals with the constitution of a statutory body
known as the Central Information Commission. According to this provision, the central
government shall constitute a body called the Central Information Commission bypassing a
notification in the Official Gazette. The Central Information Commission is entitled to exercise
the powers conferred to it and perform its duties and functions as per this legislation. The
Government of India through the Parliament of India amended the Right to Information Act in
July 2019 and introduced some changes in RTI Rules related to salaries, allowances, and tenures
of the Information Commissioner(s). The members of opposition parties started protesting and
challenging these proposed amendments on the ground that these changes are arbitrary in
nature and the Government of India wants to degrade the effectiveness of the Information
Commission.

Salient features of Section 12 of the RTI Act :

Section 12 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 is termed as the constitution of the Central
Information Commission. Furthermore, the salient features of this section are as follows:
Section 12(1): This subsection empowers the central government to constitute a body known as
the Central Information Commission.
Section 12(2): As per sub-clause (2) of Section 12, the Central Information Commission should
consist of the Chief Information Commissioner and such other Chief Information
Commissioners not more than 10 as may be deemed necessary.
Section 12(3): As per sub-clause (3) of Section 12, the Chief Information Commissioner and
other Information Commissioners shall be appointed by the President of Republic of India on
the recommendation of a committee consisting of; the Prime Minister of India, as the
Chairperson of the committee; the leader of the single largest group in opposition of the
Government of India in Lok Sabha; the Union Cabinet member shall be nominated by the Prime
Minister of India.
Section 12(5): As per sub-clause (5) of Section 12, the Chief Information Commissioner and
other Information Commissioners should be the person of acknowledge superiority in public life
and possess wide knowledge and experience in the field of law, technology, social science,
management, science, mass media, journalism, governance, and administration.
Section 12(6): As per sub-clause (6) of Section 12, the Chief Information Commissioner and
other Information Commissioners shall not hold any office of profit or should not be the
Member of Parliament or shall not be the Member of any State/Union Territory Legislative
Assembly, or shall not be pursuing any profession or carrying any business or shall not be
connected with any political party.

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Power and functions of Information Commissions :
Section 18 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 talks about the powers and functions of the
Information Commission. As per this provision, it is a duty of the Central Information
Commission and the State Information Commission to inquire the complaints received from any
person:
who has been unable to submit a request for information to a Public Information Officer
either at central or state level, either by the reason that no such officers have been appointed
under this statute or the appointed officers refuse to accept his/her application;
who has been refused to get access to the information requested under this statute;
who has not been receiving any response for the application he/she made for information and
access to information with the limited time as per this legislation;
who has been required to pay an unreasonable amount of fee;
who believes that the information provided by the officers are false, misleading and
incomplete in nature;
In respect of other matters related to the violation of the provisions of this Act.
Where the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions, while
inquiring are satisfied with the reasonableness of the complaints, it may intimate an inquiry and
the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions have the same
power as of the civil court while intimating a suit under the Civil Procedure Code, 1908, like to:

summon the attendance of any person or compel any person to give written or oral pieces of
evidence on oath or order him to produce the documents or things;
require the discovery and inspection of any documents;
receive pieces of evidence on affidavit;
requisition any public record or copies of documents from any court or office;
issue summons for examination of documents and witnesses;
any other matter related to this Act.

Other important features of the RTI Act, 2005

2
Appeal :
Section 19 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 deals with the provision related to appeal. If
any person does not receive a decision for the complaint he/she made under Section 18 of the
Right to Information Act, 2005 or if that person is aggrieved by the decision of Public
Information Officer either at central or state level, can file an appeal to the senior officer in rank
to the Public Information Officer within thirty days from the date of such decision. If the person
still is not satisfied with the decision, he may file a second appeal to the Central Information
Commission or State Information Commission within ninety days from the date of such
decision. And the decision of the Central Information Commission and the State Information
Commission would be binding on the complainant.

Penalties :
Section 20 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 deals with the provision related to penalties. If
the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission is of opinion that the
Public Information Officer either at central or state level, has not performed his duty and
without the reasonable cause, reject or refuse to entertain the application made by the
complainant, or with malafide intention reject or refuse the application made by the
complainant, or intentionally provide false, misleading and incomplete information, such officer
shall be liable to pay a penalty of Rs. 250 per day till the application is received or furnished and
the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission may recommend
disciplinary action against such Public Information Officer either at central or state level.

Salient features of the RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 :

The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 introduces amendments in the provisions
related to salaries, allowances and tenure of the Central and State Information Commission.
The salient features of the Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 are as follows:

Tenure :
The tenure of all the Chief Information Commissioner and other Information Commissioners at
central and state level has been reduced from five years to three years, which was provided in
Section 13 of the original Right to Information Act, 2005. According to Section 13 of the original
Right to Information Act, 2005, all the Chief Information Commissioner and other Information
Commissioners at Central and State level shall hold the office for a period of five years or till
they reach the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier and should not be eligible for
reappointment. In the recent amendment, the maximum age limit of 65 years remains the
same but now all the Chief Information Commissioner and other Information Commissioners at
Central and State level can be appointed for one more term.

3
Salaries and allowances :
According to Section 13(5) of the original Right to Information Act, 2005, the salary of the Chief
Information Commissioner shall be equal to the salary of the Chief Election Commissioner i.e.
Rs.2,50,000 per month and the salary of an Information Commissioner shall be equal to the
salary of an Election Commissioner. In the recent amendment, the salary of Chief Information
Commissioner at the central level remains unchanged but, there is a deduction of Rs.25,000 in
the salaries of the upcoming person who would be appointed as the State Chief Information
Commissioner anywhere in the entire nation. The upcoming batch of Information
Commissioners at Central Information Commission and State Information Commission will
receive a salary of Rs.2,25,000 which was previously at Rs.2,50,000.

Other service conditions:

In all the matters related to leaving, dearness allowance, leave travel concession,
accommodation, and at the time of retirement encashment of unutilized leave, the Chief
Information Commissioner and have been assigned the same level of payment as the babus
service included. Meaning to say, the Chief Information Commissioner in the Central
Information Commission has been assimilated with the cabinet secretary, while all the other
Information Commissioners, State Chief Information Commissioners of all the States and Union
Territories, and babus are of the same grade while serving the central government or state
government respectively.

Discretionary power to relax applicability of Rules :

Rule 22 of the Right to Information Rules, 2019 empowers the Central government with the
discretionary power to relax any of the rules mentioned in this enactment with regards to any
category or class of people in future.

Discretionary power to decide other matters :

Rule 21 of the Right to Information Rules, 2019 provides absolute power to the central
government to decide on any other matter or service conditions which have not been
specifically mentioned in this enactment and its decision would be binding on all. Rule 23 of the
Right to Information Rules, 2019 makes the Central Government the sole arbiter in determining
these rules.

4
2019 RTI Rules- Criticism w.r.t. Information Commission :
The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 violates the equality principle of
jurisprudence where it divides the Information Commissioners at Central and State level on the
basis of salaries and allowances. This ruling introduces two pay grades within these Information
Commissions. According to the original Right to Information Act, 2005, the Chief Information
Commissioners and other Information Commissioners at central and state levels were entitled
to the same salaries and allowances, but the recent amendment creates a difference of Rs.
25,000 between their salaries and allowances. This means the salary of the Chief Information
Commissioner at the central level remains unchanged but there is a deduction of Rs. 25,000,
making it Rs. 2,25,000 which was previously at Rs. 2,50,000. This applies to the salaries of the
upcoming person who would be appointed as the State Chief Information Commissioner
anywhere in the entire nation and the upcoming batch of Information Commissioners at Central
Information Commission and State Information Commission.

These rules of creating a difference between the salaries of the Central Chief Information
Commissioner and all the other Information Commissioners are arbitrary in nature. Moreover,
giving plenty of powers in the hand of the Central Information Commission over State
Information Commissions, when the Central Information Commission does not spend a single
amount on the salaries and allowances of the State Information Commissioners is arbitrary,
unreasonable, and destroys the federal structure of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
By comparing the salaries of the officers who govern the statutory body known as the Central
Information Commission with the babus, which was previously compared with the salaries of
the Chief Election Commissioner directly questions the effectiveness of bureaucracy in India.
These rules directly challenge the seniority, knowledge, and acknowledgement of the Chief
Information Commissioners and other Information Commissioners. The Central Government
would be in charge of all the Information Commissions and they will adjust the salaries and
allowances according to their wish or imagination for a batch of new officeholders and be the
sole arbiters of all matters of understanding of these 2019 Rules. Giving the Central
Government too much control as it will not pay a dime on the State Information
Commissioners’ salaries and allowances is unfair, unconstitutional and violates the uniform
system under the RTI Act. State Information Commissions have always been and will appear to
be compensated out of the State concerned ‘s Consolidated Fund. The Central Government has
no power over the manner these funds are used from the Consolidated Fund of the State,
unless and until the State is placed under the rule of the President under Article 356 of the
Constitution of India.

5
Conclusion :
Pursuant to the statutory provision of Section 29 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, it is
necessary to request the tabling of these 2019 Right to Information Rules in parliament during
the next session. Parliamentarians must be allowed to move motions for annulment of these
laws and rules or amendments, as they are permitted to do so. If this idea fails, these
amendments must be scanned by the Parliamentary Committee to find some loopholes with
open opportunities created for the public to give their opinion and comments on why these
amendments and rules must not be allowed to enact. If both the above-mentioned ideas fail,
the public can knock the door of the court and challenge the enactment of these rules.

References :
https://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/blog/central-governments-2019-rti-rules-making-a-
mess-of-things-to-gain-a-stranglehold-on-information-commissions-after-misleading-
parliament
http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/government-notifies-amendment-rti-rules-respect-
in#.XxYpoKEzbIU