Don146;t be too happy, too soon, access to file can still take yrs

Seven month after the Presidential nod, the word8217;s out: information seekers may have to wait for months, even years, before they can ex...

Seven month after the Presidential nod, the word8217;s out: information seekers may have to wait for months, even years, before they can exercise their right to access Government files. In short, the Freedom of Information Bill, 2002 has been enacted but it8217;s still several bureaucratic steps away from notification.

A team of three officials from the Department of Personnel and Training DoPT are poring over these stages, reminding you how long it has taken the British Government to notify a similar Bill 8212; their Bill was passed in 2000 but the British bureaucracy is still struggling with the rules.

Who it won8217;t apply to:

Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Economic Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Aviation Research Centre, Special Frontier Force, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force, National Security Guards, Assam Rifles, Special Service Bureau, Special Branch CID Andaman and Nicobar, Crime Branch Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Directorate of Vigilance National Capital Region, Delhi and Special Branch, Lakshadweep police.

DoPT Secretary S.S. Dawra says 8216;8216;the British system is generally considered far more efficient and it has already taken them years. In India, a beginning has been made. We are not setting any time limit for implementation of the Bill.8217;8217;

DoPTs policy framers are, for instance, mulling over how an applicant may have to pay a four-figure sum for getting, say, copies of civilian Government contracts or tender documents but much less for information now available in the public domain.

It8217;s the procedure for making a request, the manner in which the request will be processed and, finally, the methodology for disseminating the information which will decide the rules. No time frame has been discussed for putting the rules together.

The Freedom of Information has provisions which say public information officers, attached to different ministries and departments, should provide requested information within 30 days of an application. If the information sought concerns the applicant8217;s life and liberty, it should flow within 48 hours.

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A DoPT official says: 8216;8216;The problem is we cannot envisage what sort of information will be sought. We are assuming it will be information of a dynamic nature.8217;8217;

While the DoPT is preparing the rules for the Centre, states are required to frame their own rules and send it to the Centre for approval. The six states which have enacted their own Freedom of Information Bills have been told that once the Central Bill has been notified, it8217;s the one which will prevail.

In North Block, there is no clear picture on the categories for which information will be given. The DoPT intends to draft the rules into a set and circulate it among ministries and departments for suggestions.

That done, the rules will be whetted by the Law Ministry and only then will these be notified in the Official Gazette. Besides, a 8216;8216;Code of Practice8217;8217; is also under preparation to replace the existing Conduct rules which prohibit government official from giving out information.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More