Supreme Court criticises govt for non-reply to Jairam Ramesh’s plea on changes in RTI Act

The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the Union government for having not filed a reply for over a year to a petition by parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh challenging the amendments made to the Right to Information Act. The court, in January 2020, asked the Centre to file its reply to Mr. Ramesh’s plea that the amendments gave the government unparalleled powers to dictate the tenure, salaries and service conditions of the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners according to its “whims and fancies”. The petition has argued that the very purpose of the Act, which is “a salutary piece of legislation aimed at promoting transparency in public administration and empowering the common citizen”, is denuded when the salaries and tenure of the information commissioners depend on the sheer pleasure of the government. Mr. Ramesh has challenged the various amendments, including the ones which change the earlier fixed tenure of five years for central and States’ information commissioners to “a tenure to be prescribed by the Central Government”. Similarly, the petition has challenged Section 3 of the Amendment Act by which the Centre has “absolute powers” to prescribe the salaries, allowances and terms and conditions of the State information commissioners.