Under Section 27 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette make Rules to carry out the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. In exercise of these powers the Government of Gujarat made the Gujarat Right to Information Rules, 2010 (‘Rules’) which came into force on 22.3.2010.
Under these Rules, the Government of Gujarat has provided certain easy and friendly options to both the RTI Applicant and the RTI authorities under the RTI Act. For example, the Rules allow a wide range of modes through which a citizen can deposit the RTI Fee. These span from cash, demand draft, pay order, Indian Postal Order to Non-Judicial stamp or Non Judicial Stamp Paper, stamping through franking, electronic stamping, court fee stamp, Judicial stamp paper, revenue stamp to challan credited in Government Treasury. How and where the fee is to be deposited is also specified in detail. The rate of fee for almost all the categories of information including sample, model, photograph has been prescribed.
The Rules also allow a person applying through e-media to pay, the RTI fee up to 7 days from the date of application. The procedure for disposal of the RTI Application and RTI Appeal along with the documents required, etc have been explained in detail.
Further, to ease the process of writing and filing the RTI Application and Appeal, CPIO’s reply etc, the Rules contain various readymade Forms as under:
- Form A: Format for obtaining information
- Form B: Format for intimation to the applicant to deposit fee and charges for the required information.
- Form C: Format for supply and/or rejection of information to the RTI Applicant.
- Form D: Format for transfer of application pertaining to another Public Authority.
- Form E: Format for RTI First Appeal.
These formats can be used by the Applicant and the CPIO as per their requirement. In fact to make things more simple for the Applicant, the Rules clarify that these formats need not be in an authorized pre-printed stationery but can be in any format which is neatly typed, hand-written or in electronic form.
The Rules differ from and go beyond the Central Right to Information Rules 2012 in certain aspects. Thus, they allow a person applying through e-media to pay the RTI fee up to 7 days from the date of application. They also allow the Public Information Officer to ascertain the citizenship of an applicant if in his opinion, identification of citizenship is required to be ensured. Additionally, they prescribe that the Public Information Officer on whom any penalty has been levied by the State Information Commission, shall deposit it in the Government Treasury. Also, the Public Information Officer and the State Information Commission are required to maintain records of the Applications received, fees collected, Appeals received and disposed of.
In view of the above features, it can be confidently said that these Rules are more detailed and comprehensive than the Central Right to Information Rules 2012 and at places contain step by step description, which would be of a great aid and help to both the first time RTI Applicant and a newly appointed Central Public Information Officer/First Appellate Authority.
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