Two faces of RTI : Since the beginning, Right To Information has been criticised more for its misuse

Gautam Bhattacharya   | TT  |  05.10.22 : The scam in the appointment of teachers and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools in Bengal has shocked the conscience of millions. Similar scams took place in other parts of the country in the past but the present one is the biggest ever in any public office of Bengal. How such a scam continued for so many years and who all were responsible for it will hopefully come to light in the court-monitored investigation. The idea of this piece is not to elaborate on that but to understand how the scam was unearthed by the helpless job-seekers.

The Right to Information Act, 2005 was passed by the UPA-I government to empower citizens with information. It was believed that the Act would promote transparency and accountability in running public offices, which, in turn, would contain corruption.

Since the beginning, RTI has been criticised more for its misuse. Some ‘activists’ and a section of self-appointed guardians of probity in government offices are in the habit of filing ‘pleas with malicious intention under the guise of seeking information’ on rival employees to harass them. Whereas misuse of the provisions is a reality, it can hardly be denied that RTI has done some wonders in digging up corruption in public offices in the last one and a half decades. The recruitment scam is one such example.

An aspirant who was allocated waiting list number 20 for appointment as assistant teacher suddenly saw her waiting number change to 21. A minister’s daughter was accommodated instead in the list of top 20. The new candidate, who reportedly was not called for the viva, was appointed. The aggrieved aspirant ran from pillar to post but nothing happened. Finally, she filed an RTI and came to know that the candidate who was not there on the original list but was selected got 16 marks less than her. She then moved court. After a detailed hearing, the honourable judge directed the authority to appoint her in place of the illegally recruited candidate. In an unprecedented court order, the candidate recruited illegally was made to return the salaries she had drawn for about two-and-a-half years. In a situation where the public authority was responsible for manipulating the merit list, RTI came to the rescue of the helpless candidate. Many candidates, who were denied jobs illegally, came to know their actual position through RTI. This facilitated them to unite, to protest, and to move court and unearth the scam. That’s the silver lining in an otherwise gloomy surrounding.

Interestingly, the same RTI was used by the scamsters for manipulation. A media report stated that many candidates were supplied with OMR sheets along with the answer keys based on their RTI application after the announcement of the results. These candidates were made to apply separately for re-evaluation of their OMR sheets. Their marks were then increased and ranks upgraded in violation of the rules. The provisions of RTIwere thus misused to get access to the evaluated OMR sheet from the custodian for subsequent manipulation.

We need to strengthen the ambit of the RTI Act. A long and sustained movement by civil society may root out corruption to a significant extent. The root of corruption lies in the lack of transparency in the mobilisation of resources and in electoral spending by political parties. If we are to fight corruption, we need to address that issue. Why should recognised political parties, which are allotted land and accommodation at concessional rates, are provided tax exemption against the resources that they mobilise from the public, not come within the ambit of RTI?The Central InformationCommission in its historic judgement (2013) had declared national political parties as “public authorities” and brought them under RTI. All political parties for reasons that are quite obvious opposed the move on various technicalities. The matter is now lying for adjudication at the apex court.

Gautam Bhattacharya is a former civil servant