The Central Information Commission has been headless since August 22 and in the interim, the Right to Information is being eroded. A month ago, the Madras High Court invited widespread criticism by ruling that an RTI applicant must state reasons for seeking information, and that she must serve the public interest. Now, the office of the governor of Maharashtra has issued a government resolution empowering officers to ignore requests that do not serve any public interest. The Madras High Court had moved suo motu to review its own order, clarifying that it violated Section 6(2) of the RTI Act, which states that an application does not have to disclose reasons. However, the resolution in Maharashtra remains to be reversed.
These moves appear to stem from impatience about frivolous and motivated requests. As the Madras High Court had explained, the legislatures had not intended that information was to be handed out “like pamphlets to any person, unmindful of the object”. In Mumbai, the Raj Bhavan is particularly disinterested in providing personal information that may compromise privacy, especially in matters which may serve a private interest. However, the authorities cannot ascribe motive or lack of it — which is frivolity by another name — to applicants with any degree of certainty until the information released is put to use. Or not used, as the case may be. Besides, to declare the motive of an RTI query in advance is self-defeating, alerting the very authorities that it may be designed to catch out. The mechanism came with automatism built in precisely to negate governmental discretion.
