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THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 14 November 2019 (Lack of transparency in High Courts (The Hindu))

Lack of transparency in High Courts (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : Polity
Prelims level : RTI Act
Mains level : Issues related with RTI Act

Context

A study by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy has found that there is a large gap between the judiciary’s pronouncements on the Right to Information (RTI) Act and the manner in which the High Courts are implementing it.

About RTI Act

The Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.
Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.
The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.

What are the issues?

The RTI rules of several High Courts provide for a relatively inconvenient procedure when compared to the RTI rules of the Government of India.
The lack of good quality proactive disclosures by several High Courts marks the failure of the High Courts to discharge a specific statutory obligation imposed under Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act(Mandates automatic disclosure for public entities for certain matters.)
Lack of administrative transparency, especially financial transparency, within High Courts is a matter of grave concern.
The report found that several High Courts have included patently illegal clauses in their RTI Rules.
It pointed out that despite Section 8 of the RTI Act restricting the number of grounds for denying information to citizens, the RTI rules of several High Courts have included additional grounds for rejecting requests for information.
Several High Courts did not recognize convenient modes of payments.
Additionally, the report stated that the Gujarat High Court does not mention any mode of payment, which increases uncertainty for RTI applicants.
On the convenience index, not a single High Court was able to match the convenience offered by the Government of India’s RTI Rules.

Conclusion:

It should be a matter of concern to see the judiciary lagging behind the Centre when it comes to abiding by the letter and spirit of the RTI Act.
Transparency is something the judiciary itself must reflect and act on rather than be pushed on the matter by lawmakers and civil society.
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Prelims Questions:

Q1. Which of the following is not the objective of National Water Mission?
(a) Increasing water use efficiency by 20 per cent
(b) Comprehensive water database in public domain
(c) Reducing river water pollution by 50% by 2022.
(d) Focused attention to vulnerable areas including over-exploited areas