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RTI v/s OSA
Right To Information, 2005
VS.
Official Secrets Act, 1923
In the OSA clause 6, information from any governmental office is considered official information; hence it can be used to override Right to Information Act 2005 requests. This has drawn harsh criticism from many RTI activists and common public. RTI and OSA are always at loggerheads and have been in a constant state of conflict.
RTI and OSA reveal the hypocrisy of Indian democracy where one is instrumental in making governance transparent and the other to profit politicians and bureaucrats. By Overriding RTI for OSA, the Indian democracy is rendered opaque. The dogma that surrounds both of them is that both can’t exist with or without each other. OSA has been misused in a lot of cases for e.g. The Iftikhar Gilani case.
In 2006, the basic document of the then legislated Right to Information Act was making a strong recommendation for scrapping the controversial OSA law. Their main aim was to facilitate proper dissemination of information ensuring success of the setup but on 24th July 2012, the government refused to amend the OSA law. When an RTI query was filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak from Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative seeking inspection of files and other documents related to amendment process undertaken by the Officials Secrets Act, his request was refused. He said, “It appears that the OSA is being amended in an atmosphere of great secrecy and citizens outside government do not require to be consulted.”
Right to Information is the single, most important amendment in the recent years and it has proven to be boon for the world’s largest democracy. Whether flexibility is required in the OSA is debatable. It’s the people that need to know when the Wolf attacks in sheep’s skin.
VS.
Official Secrets Act, 1923
In the OSA clause 6, information from any governmental office is considered official information; hence it can be used to override Right to Information Act 2005 requests. This has drawn harsh criticism from many RTI activists and common public. RTI and OSA are always at loggerheads and have been in a constant state of conflict.
RTI and OSA reveal the hypocrisy of Indian democracy where one is instrumental in making governance transparent and the other to profit politicians and bureaucrats. By Overriding RTI for OSA, the Indian democracy is rendered opaque. The dogma that surrounds both of them is that both can’t exist with or without each other. OSA has been misused in a lot of cases for e.g. The Iftikhar Gilani case.
In 2006, the basic document of the then legislated Right to Information Act was making a strong recommendation for scrapping the controversial OSA law. Their main aim was to facilitate proper dissemination of information ensuring success of the setup but on 24th July 2012, the government refused to amend the OSA law. When an RTI query was filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak from Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative seeking inspection of files and other documents related to amendment process undertaken by the Officials Secrets Act, his request was refused. He said, “It appears that the OSA is being amended in an atmosphere of great secrecy and citizens outside government do not require to be consulted.”
Right to Information is the single, most important amendment in the recent years and it has proven to be boon for the world’s largest democracy. Whether flexibility is required in the OSA is debatable. It’s the people that need to know when the Wolf attacks in sheep’s skin.