Indian SC to challenge Delhi HC order on RTI

New Delhi, Mar 8, DH News Service:

The Supreme Court will file an appeal before itself next week challenging a Delhi High Court judgement declaring the office of the Chief Justice of India(CJI) within the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI).

The two-month deadline to challenge the high court judgement will expire on March 12, and the Supreme Court registry will have to file an appeal before that date, an official source said on Sunday. The appeal seeks an immediate stay on the high court judgment on the ground that the correspondence between the CJI and members of higher judiciary could not be sought under the RTI Act, sources said.

Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan desisted from holding a full court to discuss the issue as some jurists and constitutional experts had asked if all the apex court judges are party to the decision to challenge the high court order, then who will preside over the bench to hear the appeal.

Sources said the CJI consulted a few judges before deciding to file an appeal.
Advocate Devdutt Kamat will file the appeal and Attorney General G E Vahanvati will appear on behalf of the registry to argue the case.

On January 12, while upholding a single bench order, a division bench of the Delhi High Court ruled that the office of the CJI comes within the ambit of the RTI Act, and that judicial independence was not a judge’s privilege but a responsibility cast upon him.

The bench of Chief Justice (now retired) Ajit Prakash Shah, Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice S Muralidhar dismissed an appeal filed by the Supreme Court registry, maintaining that judicial accountability could not be seen in isolation.

Subsequently, on January 13, Justice Balakrishnan said a full court of the Supreme Court would decide whether to challenge this decision. The decision to challenge the single bench order on September 2, 2009, before a division bench was also taken by a full bench of the Supreme Court.

Carter Center Releases African Regional Plan of Action to Advance the Right of Access to Information

Participants from the African Regional Conference on the Right of Access to Information have released the Regional Findings and Plan of Action to advance the right of access to information in Africa. The conference, which took place in Accra, Ghana, from February 7-9, examined the specific the political and institutional constraints in Africa that have limited the opportunities to exercise the right to know.

Income tax returns, medical records not under RTI: Court

NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Tuesday ruled that income tax returns and medical records do not fall under the purview of Right To Information (RTI) Act “unless public interest is attached” holding in its landmark judgment that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) came under the ambit of the transparency law.
Quoting an American writer that “one man’s freedom of information is another man’s invasion of privacy”, a full bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justices S. Muralidhar and Vikramjit Sen said: “Personal information including tax returns, medical records etc. cannot be disclosed in view of Section 8(1)(j) of the act.”
“If, however, the applicant can show sufficient public interest in disclosure, the bar (preventing disclosure) is lifted and after duly notifying the third party (the individual concerned with the information or whose records are sought) and after considering his views, the authority can disclose it,” they said.
Highlighting how the right to information often clashes with the right to privacy, the court noted that the government stores a lot of information about individuals, supplied by the individuals themselves in applications made for obtaining various licences, permissions including passports, or through disclosures such as income tax returns or for census data.
“When an applicant seeks access to government records containing personal information concerning identifiable individuals, it is obvious that these two rights are capable of generating conflict,” the court said, adding that “in some cases, this will involve disclosure of information pertaining to public officials. In others, it will involve disclosure of information concerning ordinary citizens. In each instance, the subject of the information can plausibly raise a privacy protection concern.”
However, the court ruled that notes made by the judges do not come under the RTI act, the court said the notes taken by judges while hearing a case cannot be treated as final views expressed by them on the case. “They are meant only for the use of the judges and cannot be held to be a part of a record ‘held’ by the public authority. However, if the judge turns in notes along with the rest of his files to be maintained as a part of the record, the same may be disclosed.”
Maintaining that the right to information may not always have a linkage with the freedom of speech, the court said: “If a citizen gets information, certainly his capacity to speak will be enhanced.”
“But many a time, he needs information which may have nothing to do with his desire to speak. He may wish to know how an administrative authority has used its discretionary powers. He may need information as to whom the petrol pumps have been allotted. The right to information is required to make the exercise of discretionary powers by the executive transparent and, therefore, accountable because such transparency will act as a deterrent against unequal treatment,” the court said.

http://blog.taragana.com/law/2010/01/12/income-tax-returns-medical-records-not-under-rti-court-19501/

RTI changing rural lives

Community learning centre at Chanderhat Ganokendra, Narsingdi.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Z.A.M. Khairuzzaman


THE Right to Information (RTI) Act, which completes nine months in the statute books in November, is reaching the rural areas too, where villagers have access to services provided by different government (GO) and non-government organisations (NGO).

The Uttar Shilmandi (Daripara) village in Narsingdi district is one such example. Most of the villagers are either marginal farmers or manual labourers. In view of a variety of structural disadvantages, i.e. illiteracy, malnutrition, and social complications, they fail to progress. After the enactment of the RTI Act, people are being provided with necessary information on rural development programs, agricultural extension and utilities as well as information on social development, such as health, education, finance, legal etc.

The Chanderhat Ganokendra, a community learning centre established by Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), a major NGO, has been addressing the information needs of the rural population and spreading awareness about the Act. As a result, villagers are gradually waking up to the power of RTI.

Chanderhat provides "one-stop" access to various information resources to benefit the disadvantaged community. "Villagers have started seeking information related to their problems," DAM Regional Coordinator Tapan Kumar Sarker said.
The centre provides linkage services of government and non-government organisations. It has become the heart of the poor community. From here, they get easy access to different services.

During a visit to the Ganokendra, this correspondent noticed that villagers, most of whom were ultra-poor, had lined up to receive services from various centres located at the Ganokendro. The centres included an immunisation centre run by the government's Health Directorate, a nutrition centre of Vard, a satellite clinic of the government's Family Planning Directorate and Surjomukhi Mohila Unnyan Dal, which is managed by Village Development Society.

People learn about their rights, such as their right to health, work, legal system, and various public services including VGF card, elderly allowance and widow allowance, said Hasina Begum and Masuda Akhter, two members of the Ganokendro.
Inspired residents of the village questioned the school administration about the studies of their children. The school administration immediately replied to their queries.

Chanderhat helps people get their children admitted to schools, discourages school dropouts, improves the standard of literacy, sets up sanitary latrines, prevents child marriage and dowry, provides health care service, helps in birth and marriage registration, and motivates people to improve the social atmosphere.
Its activities are being supervised by an executive committee elected from among its members, 60% of whom are women. People's drama, essay competition, poetry recital, debate, rally are also held at the centre, where people also bring out wall magazines.

The Papri Community Resource Centre (CRC), another resource centre at Moddhya Shilamandi, also renders similar services to the rural poor. This correspondent observed that a group of youth were undergoing an elementary computer training course for free to increase their capacity for employment.This has been possible due to launching of ACCESS Project of DAM, which is funded by CORDAID of the Netherlands.

The project was launched in January, 2007, and will continue till December, 2009. The program is being implemented through 553 Ganokendros and 23 CRCs of 44 unions in eight upazilas of eight districts. A total of 55,300 people are being benefited under the project, resulting in improvement in their lifestyle.

Earlier, people had a tough time in getting VGD-VGF cards, elderly allowance, disabled allowance and other essential services in the project areas. But this year, 3,525 people got VGD cards, 34, 216 VGF cards, 7,048 elderly allowance, 859 disabled allowance while 12,673 got elementary education. Not only that, 671 school dropouts were readmitted to school and 25 child marriages were prevented.

Apart from this, 227 received computer training, 47 attained mobile servicing skills, 15 were imparted honey cultivation training, 6,311 others were provided with necessary information relating to health, agriculture and livelihood, 129 got government forms, 660 were connected to service-oriented organisations through cell phone and 240 others were provided with results of public examinations, job information and e-mailing through Internet services.

Moreover, special programs were implemented in six villages of six upazilas in nine different areas with a view to create illiteracy-free villages.Computer training was imparted to villagers through 23 community resource centres of 23 unions in six districts.

The project has created a positive change in the backward areas.According to ACCESS Project Coordinator Komol Kumar Joarder, this is a way to empower poor villagers. It is like a lifeline to rural Bangladesh. DAM has shown great potential to transform the life of rural society, he said.

Z.A.M.Khairuzzaman is a journalist.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=115927

World Bank Board Broadens Access in New Disclosure Policy

freedominfo.org - Update, November 18, 2009

Washington, DC - The World Bank's executive directors November 17 approved a new policy on access to information that will mean significantly more transparency about Bank decision-making and operations.

The Bank's press release said, "The new policy represents a fundamental shift in the Bank's approach to disclosure of information--moving from an approach that spells out what documents it can disclose to one under which the Bank will disclose any information in its possession that is not on a list of exceptions."

Although just such a shift was pushed by transparency advocates, the final product was weakened in their eyes by the breadth of the exemptions. Nevertheless, the new policy is expected to provide considerably more access to materials about projects and policies under preparation and how they are implemented.

Read More at http://freedominfo.org/ifti/20091118.htm

Supreme Court of Nepal Rejected to Issue an Interim Order

In a first-ever case on Right to Information in the Supreme Court after the promulgation of Right to Information Act 2007, the apex court decided not to issue an interim order as sought by the writ petitioner Tribhuvan University. Division Bench of honorable Justices Khilraj Regmi and Abadesh Kumar Yadav were not convinced that there is a need to issue an interim order to stop Information Commission from considering appeals filed against the University.

Tribhuvan University, the oldest university of the country went to the Court when the National Information Commission (NIC) ordered it last month to provide the copy of marked answer sheets as demanded by one of its student. TU petitioned the SC to quash the order made by NIC compelling it to provide answer sheets and demanded an interim order.

Organizations working for Right to Information and Human Rights lawyer expressed their keen interest in the case and were present in the Court pleading on behalf of National information Commission. Senior Advocate Krishna Prasad Bhandari, Advocates Raman Shrestha, Madhav Basnet and Santosh Sigdel had assisted the NIC in this preliminary hearing.

The Supreme Court also decided to hear this case on priority basis.

In Shanghai, President Obama Recognizes Access to Information as Universal Right

Shanghai, China — On his first trip to Asia, President Obama made unequivocal statements about access to information as a universal human right at a rare town-hall style meeting of university students November 16. Over 2 years ago, the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Open Government Information (OGI Regulations) were published on April 24, 2007, and became effective one year later—a turning point for the deeply ingrained culture of government secrecy in China.

Speaking about the sometimes strained relationship between the US and China, President Obama made what the media is calling “delicately balanced message” that both admonishes the Chinese government and tries to encourage cooperation:

“We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation, but we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation. These freedoms of expression and worship—of access to information and political participation—we believe are universal rights. We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation, but we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation. These freedoms of expression and worship—of access to information and political participation—we believe are universal rights.”

Even though the town-hall meeting was available through a live feed on the White House website, TV coverage was restricted to Shanghai. Still, many thousands people throughout China attended the event virtually in classrooms, coffee houses, living rooms, and at “watch parties” organized by the U.S. Embassy and Consulates. The President also spoke at length about how technology has facilitated free information, diversity, and openness, thus inspiring innovation, creativity, and even strength.

“But I am a big believer in technology and I'm a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. That generates new ideas. It encourages creativity."

“And so I've always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I'm a big supporter of non-censorship. This is part of the tradition of the United States that I discussed before, and I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet—or unrestricted Internet access is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged.”

President Obama had met President Hu Jintao when he first arrived in China and meets again November 17 with President Hu and other Chinese leaders to discuss climate change, trade, North Korea, and Iran. White House aides have said Obama will raise several human rights issues privately with Chinese leaders.

http://freedominfo.org/news/20091116.htm