A BILL THAT RESTRICTS THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION, ACCORDING TO EDITORIAL ANALYSIS

 

  • The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill has been approved by the Union Cabinet and will be introduced during the monsoon session of Parliament.
  • The Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was approved by Parliament in 2005, aims to provide citizens with access to Central and State government records.

 

GSPREP ON THE ISSUE

 

Right to Information Act (RTI):

 

Objectives:

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill’s historical context

  • Although it was made available to the public in December 2022, the actual Bill has not yet been made available.
  • It contains two measures that will significantly curtail the right to information for Indian citizens.
  • The RTI Act’s Section 8(1)(j), which deals with personal information, will be changed to read as exempting information under (j).
  • The term “person” is defined quite broadly in the proposed Bill to cover people, businesses, and the state.

o The majority of data, except budgets, would be connected to one of them.

 

Bill 2022 for the protection of digital personal data:

  • It is a fundamental tenet of the comprehensive framework of technological rules that the Centre is constructing.
  • It contains the
  • The Digital India Bill, which would replace the Information Technology Act of 2000.

The 2022 draught of the Indian Telecommunications Bill

o A non-personal data governance policy.

  • It will apply to domestic Indian processing of digital personal data.

o If data processing is done for the purpose of providing goods or services, outside the country.

o for identifying people in India

  • It mandates that organisations that gather personal information, or “data fiduciaries,” maintain the accuracy of the data, keep it secure, and destroy it once the reason for which it was collected has been satisfied.

 

The 2005 Indian Right to Information Act:

  • It is one of the best laws for transparency in the entire world and gives citizens authority.
  • It serves as a concrete acknowledgement of their status as India’s proprietors and rulers.
  • Its prologue emphasises that a democracy needs informed citizenry and openness in its government’s operations so that the latter may be held responsible and corruption can be reduced.
  • It balanced the requirement for an effective administration with the preservation of democratic ideals.
  • Despite the fact that government agents use a variety of tactics to deny citizens their legal rights.

o Citizens use this democratic tool to bring corruption and wrongdoing to light.

  • According to the legislation, every citizen has the right to practically all of the information held by the government.

 

RTI Act Section 8(1)(j):

  • It excludes personal data that does not relate to public activity or that violates an individual’s right to privacy.
  • The provision that “the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature, shall not be denied to any person” is meant to assist anyone seeking exemption.
  • Personal data could not be disclosed if

o It has nothing to do with a public interest or activity

o would result in an unjustified breach of a person’s privacy

  • Anyone asserting that a disclosure is excluded under Section 8(1)(j) must declare that they will not provide this information to Parliament.

 

Section 8(1)(j) abuse

  • A lot of information request refusals did not follow the law; instead, they simply stated that they would not provide the information because it was personal information.
  • To protect government officials: It has frequently been used to protect the arbitrary, dishonest, or unlawful actions of government representatives.
  • A few instances of irrational rejection:

o The Department of Personnel and Training rejected the “Total number of Annual Performance Appraisal reports (APAR) of IAS officers pending for over years” by using Section 8(1)(j) as an exemption.

o The request for information regarding Member of the Legislative Assembly funds was turned down since it contained personal information.

o Information on the recipients of the Prime Minister’s Fund

o Fake caste certificates, diplomas, and employees that don’t exist

o Flagrant arbitrariness, corruption, and disregard for the law while choosing candidates for jobs

o Excessive assets in relation to income reported

o Verification of elected officials’ affidavits

o Inaccurate evaluation of students and job applicants in government

o Ignore allegations of government corruption that have been confirmed to be true

o Keep meeting notes and minutes on file

 

Data Protection Bill concerns:

  • Broad exemptions for the national government and its institutions.
  • The Bill stipulates that “any instrumentality of the state” may be exempt from the provisions on the following grounds:

In national security

o connections with other governments

o keeping the peace, among other things.

Members of the data protection board will be appointed by the central government.

o Data protection board: a tribunal that will resolve disagreements between parties about privacy.

  • The central government will appoint the board’s chief executive and set the terms and conditions of their employment.

The Law could weaken the Right to Information (RTI) Act since it is likely to shield the personal information of government employees, making it challenging to share that information with an RTI applicant.

 

Way ahead

  • If this change is made, it might be possible for information on a person to be legally suppressed.
  • Since the majority of information might be proven to be connected to a specific individual, public information officers (PIOs) who don’t want to share information would have a legal right to refuse.
  • A PIO will be able to associate information with a specific person whenever he wants to refute it.

o RTI would morph into a Right to Deny Information, making it useless as a tool.

  • The proposed amendment would cause democracy to significantly deteriorate.
  • The Data Protection Bill will establish a framework for changing the RTI statute in a way that will exempt all personal data.

 

PRACTISE

What does the phrase “good governance” mean to you? How much have the recipients benefited from the State’s recent e-Government initiatives? Discuss using appropriate instances. (UPSC 2022) (10 MARKERS, 200 WORDS)