Information seeking under rti act, 2005: A Shimla based study

The Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereafter, RTI Act) came into existence after it was passed by the Indian Parliament on 15 June 2005 and became a law upon the assent of the President of India on 12 October 2005. This law was brought in by United Progressive Alliance government (20042009) replacing an earlier Freedom of Information Act, 2002 passed under the National Democratic Alliance regime (1999-2004). There is a long history of struggle behind the implementation of the RTI Act.

Since its inception there have been various attempts to dilute the Act in several ways. There have also been studies which have evaluated its effectiveness. This study aims to determine how is the act sought to be used by citizens in Shimla, and their success in doing so.

The study achieves this aim with the help of following objectives: To explore the nature of information sought under the RTI Act; To find out rate of success or failure in information seeking under RTI; and To determine if the information seekers felt satisfied with the information received under RTI Act.

The study act as a feedback for the champions of freedom of information, the government and the judiciary and may be helpful in bringing improvements in the Act, which may lead to transparency and accountability in the governance, and help in citizen empowerment.