Right To Information Act: A Tool For Good Governance
Dr. Ramesh Kumar, Associate
Professor, JIMS Engineering Management Technical Campus, School of Law, Greater
Noida
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Information is the tool
through which we acquire knowledge and add something new to our awareness,
thought and remove the vagueness existing in our ideas. Power is
derived from knowledge and information is the basic component of knowledge. The
free flow of information is a must for a democratic society as it helps the
society to grow and to retain a continuous debate and discussion among the
people. No democratic government can survive without accountability and the
basic postulate of accountability is that the people should have information
about the functioning of the government. It brings
openness in the administration which helps to promote transparency in state
affairs, keep government more accountable and ultimately reduce corruption.
Disclosure of information in regard to the functioning of the government must
be the rule and secrecy an exception. Right to information is integral part of
the freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution.
The Right to Information Act, 2005 was
passed for making the government transparent and more accountable.
In international arena,
Right to information has been warmly welcomed and incorporated in various
international human rights documents.
Good governance is a term
that is often used to describe the desired objective of a nation-state’s political
development. The principles of good governance, however, are not new. Good
governance in short is described as anti-corruption, whereas authority and its institutions
are accountable, effective and efficient, participatory, transparent, responsive,
and equitable. These are the major characteristics of good governance as
outlined by the United Nations.
Good Governance
constitutes the cornerstone of every democracy. It includes wide range of issues
like economic, political, administrative and judicial as well. There is a close
link between right to information and good governance. Good governance is characterized
by transparency, accountability and responsiveness. Consequently, the citizen‘s
right to information is increasingly being recognized as an important mechanism
to promote openness, transparency and accountability in government
administration.
Participation of both men
and women is the cornerstone of good governance. The Right to information Acts
gives peoples a chance to participate not just once in five years, but every
day and question any decision. The right to Information Act gives an
opportunity to the common men to participate in governance and reduce the
imbalance in power relationship, provides a tool to oppose injustice and allows
collective spirit to make democracy work for everyone. Right to information Act
also strengthen grassroots democracy and ensures peoples participation in local
governance and development activities. Right to
Information makes it possible to easy access of information from government
departments, documents, records, services, finances and policies to all sectors
of community. The right to know and easy access of government information helps
the people to understand the limitations of government at different levels. The
availability of information also helps to foster in development process and it
is a symptom of true and mature democracy. Transparency
is the milestone of good governance. Transparency means that decisions taken
and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations.
It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to
those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement. Transparency
and accountability is possible only when the public have access to information.
Though some departments of the Union government are exempted from this Act but
the information can be sought if it is concerned with violation of human
rights. Even the information from the private authority can be sought through
the controlling authority and controlling authority will send the notice to the
institution concerned under the Act. The Right
to Information Act provides people with mechanism to access information, which
they can use to hold the government accountable or to seek explanation as to
why decisions have been taken, by whom and with what consequences or outcomes. The
Right to Information Act empowers people by removing unnecessary secrecy
surrounding in decision making process of the government.
It is considered one of
the most powerful laws. It works as oxygen for the strengthening of democracy and
promotion of transparency. These laws promote transparency, democracy,
accountability and reduce corruption. It empowers the common masses and
instrumentalities in good governance. The secret of progress and development in
every sphere of life lies in access to information to public by public
authorities. Good governance and right to information are
complimentary to each other. A nation whatever form of government it pursues
must fulfill the aspirations of common man. Good governance is the only avenue,
which can provide guaranty of dignified life of individuals The Right
to Information Act by providing easy access of information is trying its best
to reduce the established long gap between citizens and administration and
helping in nation building process.
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