By Amritananda Chakravorty
Since the Modi 2.0 Government has come to power after 23rd May, 2019, it has been on a spree to pass legislations in the 17th parliamentary session, obviously owing to its brute majority in Lok Sabha. Most of these bills are quite contentious, including the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, bill criminalising Triple Talaq, and Unlawful Prevention Activities (Amendment) Bill, 2019, amongst others.
Out of these, on 22nd July, 2019, the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed in the Lok Sabha, amidst huge opposition and uproar amongst the opposition parties. Though seemingly innocuous, the amendments to the RTI Act would amount to almost a ‘death-knell’ of the legislation, by directly affecting the independence and autonomy of the institution. In the present legislation, there exists a fixed tenure of five years (or up to 65 years, whichever is earlier) for the Chief Information Commissioner, and the other Information Commissioners at the Central level, and a similar fixed tenure of five years (or up to 65 years, whichever is earlier) for the State Information Commissioners at the State levels.
The 2019 amendment seeks to change this fixed tenure to ‘a term as may be prescribed by the Central Government’, thereby making the tenure insecure, and at the whims of the Government in power. Security of tenure is a cardinal principle of institutional autonomy and independence, and making the tenure dependent on the wishes of the government would be disastrous, and would severely impede the functioning of the Commissions. If an Information Commissioner’s tenure is variable or for a limited duration, then it’s most likely that she will be unable to function in a free manner, and follow the mandate of the RTI Act.
In a similar vein, the 2019 Amendment seeks to make the salaries payable to the Chief Information Commissioner and the State Information Commissioners dependent on the Central Government, which was earlier equivalent to what a Chief Election Commissioner or State Election Commissioners would be paid as salary.
These two amendments are designed by the Government to crush the institutional autonomy of the CIC and the effectiveness of the RTI Act. It must be noted that the RTI Act was the result of a decade long struggle by the grassroots activists and organisations fighting against corruption, and seeking transparency in government actions and decision-making. Because of RTI, scores of corruption cases have been exposed, and there is greater accountability on the part of the government personnel now. In the last 14 years, the RTI Act has revolutionised how the citizens access information from the government, how bureaucrats interact with common people, and how decisions are taken.
However, in the last five years, the present government has systematically tried to dilute the provisions of the Act, by not appointing the Information Commissioners, by not replying to RTIs resulting in enormous pendency of queries, and finally by bringing in these current amendments. The intent is clear. This government is fearful of an independent and effective RTI, where all its decisions can be made accountable. As evident from the Rafale case, it is clear that Modi Government does not follow any due procedure or established norms as well as in other cases like how PSUs have been run to the ground.
The 2019 Amendments are not just about the term and salaries of the CIC and ICs, but it’s a message to all the autonomous institutions in this country that their days of autonomy and independence (mostly on paper) are over, and this government, with its brute majority, would just continue its subversion of democratic institutions and their procedures. One hopes that when the Bill comes to Rajya Sabha, the Upper House will follow its constitutional mandate of being a check on this majoritarian government, and its anti-democratic policies. (IPA Service)
