Judging the Right to Information: Analysis of Some Landmark Judgments of Central Information Commission in India

There is a global shift towards addressing the issue of the right to information by States, intergovernmental organizations, people and society as a whole. In India the law regarding Right to Information came into force on October 12, 2005, after many constant efforts over the years which opened the doors of governance process to the public in the form of Right to Information Act, 2005. The Act is based on the principle that all government information is the property of people. It takes democracy to the grass root level and is also a step towards ensuring participatory governance in the country. Since its inception, the Central Information Commission has given some landmark rulings on the right to information which finally opened the cudgels of secrecy of the public bodies. As a fearless watchdog, the CIC has vigorously upheld the values of a participatory democracy and fertilized many provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 with meaning and content. This paper seeks to deal with the impact of the Right to Information Act, 2005 on the governance of India since its enactment. This paper discusses some of the landmark cases that were decided by the Commission from its inception till date, which authoritatively interpreted the important provisions of the Act. The analysis has been done of the judgements/directions delivered by the Commission since Jan 2006 till March 2018, which has come up through appeals and complaints filed by the appellants or complainants. This analysis is in the form of summary and substance of those landmark orders which have further strengthen the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005.