Pushed and prodded by the Supreme Court, the Government may have been forced to set up an ad hoc system to protect whistleblowers but when it comes to the Freedom of Information Bill, it’s still sitting on it. Even after the President has given his assent, even after the Bill was notified in January 2003. And the excuse: rules are being framed.
Three months ago, a set of draft rules, running into 30 pages, was sent to the Law Ministry for approval which bounced it back to the Department of Personnel and Training saying the rules went beyond provisions listed in the Bill.
According to Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, the Government may provide rules for all or any of the four:
• Intervals at which every public authority will publish its own particulars like name of Public Information Officers, details of facilities, its own role etc.
• Fee structure
• Authority before whom an appeal may be preferred
• Any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed.
‘‘The DoPT was to frame rules only on these points but they appear to have gone overboard,’’ said a senior official. ‘‘They visited many countries and drafted voluminous rules which was not required. This will cause further delay.’’
Once the draft rules have been cleared by the Law Ministry, a Committee of Secretaries will examine them before they are notified in the Official Gazette. The state governments have been informed that once the Central law is implemented, it will take precedence over state laws. This has raised concern in states like Maharashtra which passed their own Right to Information law and activists are ready to campaign to ensure that a watered-down Central law doesn’t kill the state law.
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DoPT officials say that even as the back-and-forth continues, they are drafting training programes for Public Information Officers and analysing record-management systems put in place years ago.
In fact, experts say that the clear-cut rules of the Maharashtra law could be a model for a Central law. These rules cover the following:
• Names of Public Information Officers (PIOs) to be prominently displayed in offices
• List of PIOs to be published
• Apellate Authority named
• Format for making a request for information
• Court fee to be paid
• Information to be handed over by post or in person by PIO
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• Appeals against denial of information to be made to Lokayukta
• Register to be maintained for listing requests by PIO
