In this act,
unless the context otherwise requires:
(a)
Appropriate
government means, in relation to a public authority which is
established, constituted, owned, controlled or substantially financed by funds
provided directly or indirectly –
(i) by the central Government or a Union
Territory administration, the central Government;
(ii) by the State Government, the State Government;
Explanation:
government. On central level, center government and on state level, state
government.
It is noted
that appropriate government has power to appoint chief information commissioner
and other information commissioners, on central or state level, as the case may
be, under the section 12 and 15 of this act.
(e) Competent authority” means:
I.
the
Speaker in the case of the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a
state or a Union territory having such Assembly and the chairman in the case of
the council of States or a Legislative council of a State”;
II.
The
chief Justice of India in the case of the Supreme court;
III.
The
chief Justice of the High court in the case of a High court;
IV.
The
President or the Governor, as the case may be, in the case of other authorities
established or constituted by or under the constitution;
V.
the
administrator appointed under article 239 of the constitution;
Explanation:
competent authority means, authority which have powers to make rules for public
authorities under the section 2(1) (g) and section 28 of this act. Generally,
these rules implies the rules about the fees.
Rules can be made by the Speakers of the respective houses,
the Chief Justices of the respective Courts, Governors of respective states and
the President.
ALSO READ ABOUT
(f) information” means any material in any form, including records,
documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars,
orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material
held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which
can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in
force;
Explanation:
information would mean anything which exists, in any form with a public
authority. The specific instances – records, documents, memos, emails,
opinions, advices, reports, samples, models, files etc.
Information relating to any private body, although can not
be obtain directly, but can be obtained through a public authority if the law
allows the public authority to access it.
Look at
some illustrations:
•
Information about various banks, including
private banks – from Reserve Bank of India.
•
Information about a private unaided school –
from the Education Department.
•
Information about a Public Limited Company –
from the Registrar of Companies or SEBI if the law empowers them to ask for it.
•
Information about a Cooperative Society – from
the registrar of Cooperative Societies.
•
Information about Trusts – from the Charities
Commissioner.
Note: There
is some ambiguity on the term “accessed”. It means any information which the
authority can ask, or usually supposed to acquire under the provisions of this
act, or under any law.
It is
also noted that only the information ‘normally’ and routinely accessed
by the Public authorities, comes under the ambit of RTI, one can not ask to
public authority to generate new information.
(g) Prescribed”
means prescribed by rules made under this Act by the appropriate Government or
the competent authority, as the case may be;
Explanation:
prescribed means, The rules prescribed for fees, formats for
applications, appeals etc. these rule making power rest in appropriate
government (section 2(1)(a)”, and competent authority “section 2(1)(e) of this
act.
(h) Public authority” means any authority or body or institution of
self Government established or constituted —
a)
by or
under the constitution;
b)
by any other
law made by Parliament;
c)
by any
other law made by State Legislature;
d)
by
notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes
any--
I.
body
owned, controlled or substantially financed;
(ii) Non-Government
organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided
by the appropriate Government”
Explanation:
public authority includes: All the three wings of government: legislature,
executive and some an extent judiciary; all governmental departments, Municipal
Bodies, Panchayats, public sector undertakings, bodies like UPSC and so on. It
also included the bodies established, owned, controlled, substantially
financed, non-governmental organizations which receives funds from the
government, no matter directly or indirectly etc. comes under the purview of
RTI act.
Important
terms:
Subsection
(d): refers to that kind of organizations, which are created by a special
notification. For example: universities.
Owned: the
word owned gave the expression that whenever over 51% investments in a
body lies with any entity, it is said to be owned by that entity.
Substantially
financed: it means, whenever the more than 26% of the share lies with the
government of a private entity, termed as substantially financed organization.
(i)
Record”
includes
(a)
any
document, manuscript and file;
(b)
any
microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a document;
(c)
any
reproduction of image or images embodied in such microfilm (whether enlarged or
not); and,
(d)
any other
material produced by a computer or any other device;
Explanation:
record means, which is available or accessible for the any public authority, no
matter in any form it be.
(j) Right to Information” means the Right to Information accessible
under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority
and includes the right to-
(i)
inspection
of work, documents, records;
(ii)
taking
notes, extracts, or certified copies of documents or records;
(iii)
taking
certified samples of material;
(iv)
obtaining
information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in
any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored
in a computer or in any other device;
Explanation: Right to
Information entitles the applicant to inspection of work or documents and
records. Further, it also entitled to an information seeker to take notes, or
ask for extracts, or certified copies of any records.
(n) Third party” means a person other than the citizen making a request
for information and includes a public authority.
Explanation:
The third party has to be someone apart from the applicant and the
Public authority, from whom the information is sought. However, another public
authority would also be considered as a third party.
0 Comments