PROJECT WORK

ON
RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005
IN COURSE OF
LAW FOR ENGINEERS

PREPARED BY:
BHAVESH PETHANI(13BCL083)
VARDHAN GARG (13BCL120)
ABHISHEK PATEL (14BCL168)
JAIMIN PATEL (14BCL170)
VISHAL RAMANI (14BCL173)
SUBMITTED TO
Prof. Dhanya Mahesh

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING,

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, NIRMA UNIVERSITY
MARCH. 14th, 2016

Introduction
The Right to Information Act (RTI) is an Act of the Parliament of India "to provide
for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens" and replaces
the erstwhile Freedom of information Act, 2002.
The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India except Jammu & Kashmir.
Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a "public
authority" which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.
The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide
dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens
need minimum recourse to request for information formally.
This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12
October 2005.
The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens,promote
transparency and accountability in the working of the Government,contain corruption,
and make our democracy work for the people in real sense.
The Right to Information (RTI) holds within it the right to seek information, as well as the
duty to provide information. Assertion of RTI makes the public officials answerable for the
actions of the public entity (accountability), places the rules, regulations and decisions in the
public domain (transparency), compels the public authorities to act with sensitivity to public
demands and expectations (responsiveness), bridges the gulf between the public authority and
the citizenry (participation), leaves the public officials with no option but to adhere to the
normative uniform behavior in a given set of circumstances (predictability) and ensures
service delivery consistent with the purpose and objectives by the public authority (efficiency
& effectiveness). Citizens RTI, seen in a holistic perspective, is the cornerstone of all
entitlements as access to information leads to securing other entitlements. Exercising the
right, a citizen can actively engage the public authority in securing information on Why the
problem has occurred, Who deals with the problem?, What action has been taken to solve
the problem?, What action has been taken on past complaints?, How long it would take
to resolve the problem? leading to informed choice on what can be done to resolve the
problem for realization of entitlements.
During the period of the implementation of the RTI Act i.e. October 2005 onwards, it has
become evident that there are many issues to be addressed at various ends for effective
implementation of the Act. There have been discussions and debates about the effectiveness
and impact of the Act. The Civil Society Organizations and Government agencies have been
engaging themselves in the debate over various aspects of the Act and its effectiveness and
interpretations. There is a broad consensus that the implementation of the Act needs to be
improved to achieve the objectives. At the same time the information seekers too have to
learn how to use the Act more effectively. Therefore, this study has been undertaken to
identify the problems plaguing the system and suggest remedial measures so as to enable
better access of information and uphold the spirit of the act.
The basic objective of the act was to increase the transparency and increase the accountability
of the government offices. Notwithstanding the improvement requirements, the following
achievements are undisputable:
The basic tenets of the Act have been implemented and the institutional mechanism is
in place and is in use by citizens.

 Civil society organizations and the media have started using the Act for bringing in
transparency and objectivity.
Centre and State Government departments have initiated the training of key
functionaries to assume the responsibilities of PIOs and FAAs
-Government employees/Public Authorities are aware of the basic elements of the Act.
-Various State Governments have taken up initiatives, which go beyond the stipulations of
the Act, and further the spirit of the Act.
It has been recognized that still there are various constraints involved in achieving the
objective of the act on the part of both the information seekers and information providers.
The commencement of the RTI regime 11 years ago marked the don of a new era. Different
stakeholders have played a crucial role in carrying forward the regime and have helped the
government in inculcating a culture of transparency and accountability in the working of
public authorities. It has been observed that information seekers face problems in making use
of the act and the officers of the public authorities face problems in implementing the
provisions of the act. Therefore, this study also focuses to identify the problems plaguing the
system and suggest remedial measures so as to enable better access of information and
uphold the spirit of the act.

Objectives

To study and understand the Right to Information Act, 2005.

To analyze and conclude whether this act is really implemented or not.

To study the various characteristics of information seeker:i. Background of Information Seeker.

ii. Sex of Information Seeker.
iii. Job Sector of Information Seeker.
iv. Language and legibility of Information Seeker.
v. Type of Information required by Information Seeker.
To study the time involved in giving the required information based on following
factors:i.
No of times the application has been filed.
ii.
Application Date and Date on which information is provided.
iii.
No of pages and questions asked in the application.
iv. Nature of Application.
v. Form in which information is sought.
vi.
Fee Payment.
To understand the merits and demerits of Right to Information Act, 2005.
To understand the Limitations of Right to Information Act, 2005.

Hypothesis
The research majorly focusses on ways to improve transparency and accountability in the
government through effective implementation of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Research Questions:
1.Upto what extent right to information act-2005 has become useful to
common man?
2.what is the change is required in this act according to present time?
3.how this act can be used?
4.how this act comes into existence?
5.what is the advantage of this act in our democratic system?

Methodology:
The researchers were sentfor the purpose of the empirical study of the RTI system and
records. At the Ministry the interns worked under five CPIOs. The researchers randomly
selected twenty applications from each CPIO for the purpose of the study (however some
records which were incomplete were purposefully left out). There were hundred applications
in total which were analyzed for the purpose of the research. Each researcher worked on 50
RTI applications each.On the basis of the observations recorded, analysis was done. The
observations have then been analysed with the help of graphs which attempt to give a
scientific explanation of the given data. The analysis, besides interpretation of diagrams,
includes identification of certain patterns. After the results were discussed certain
conclusions were drawn out.