COMMENTS / OBJECTIONS / SUGGESTIONS : ref:PN/DoPT/OM/2010/RTI/AAA-0000-012

To:
The Government of India, by
Shri R.K.Girdhar
Under-Secretary/RTI
Department of Personnel and Training, North Block
New Delhi 110011

1) CONFIDENTIAL,
2) SECRET,
3) My Intellectual property,
4) Not to be disclosed to any unauthorised person,
5) Not to be disclosed to any private person whatsoever,
6) Not to be disclosed to Prime Minister or his office,
7) Not to be disclosed to National Advisory Council,
8) Not to be disclosed under Right to Information except to myself,

BY EMAIL:

Date:  21-December-2010
Your Ref: OM dated 10.12.2010 in File No.1/35/2008-IR (draft RTI Rules)
Our Ref:  PN/DoPT/OM/2010/RTI/AAA-0000-012
Subject Objections and/or Suggestions to the amendments proposed

Sir,

I refer to the above citations and your subject OM. I am caused to submit the following objection(s) and/or suggestion(s) to the same.
This is separate, distinct and without prejudice to other objections I may submit from time to time within the period allowed..

http://persmin.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTI/RTI_rules_01122010-1.pdf

I generally OBJECT to the following rule proposed

"5. Fees for providing information: Fee for providing information under
Section 4(4), Section 7 (1) and Section 7 (5), as the case may be, shall be charged
at the following rates:
(a) rupees two for each page in A-3 size or smaller size paper;
(b) actual cost or price of a copy in larger size paper;
(c) actual cost or price for samples or models;
(d) for inspection of records, no fee for the first hour; and fee of rupees five for
each subsequent hour (or fraction thereof);
(e) for information provided in diskette or floppy, rupees fifty per diskette or
floppy;
(f) for information provided in printed form, at the price fixed for such
publication or rupees two per page of photocopy for extracts from the
publication;
(g) the actual amount spent by public authority on hiring a machine or any other
equipment, if any, to supply information;
(h) Postal charges, in excess of rupees ten, if any, involved in supply of
information.
Provided that no Fee shall be charged under this rule from the persons who
are below poverty line as may be determined by respective State Governments."

My specific OBJECTIONS / SUGGESTIONS with REASONS are listed below:

1) BECAUSE information "dissemination" vide section 4(4) stands on a different footing from providing information to requesters u/s 7(1) or 7(5) insofar as section 4(4) provides Firstly the information to be supplied free of cost, Secondly that it be provided at the printed cost if it is a priced publication, and Lastly at a prescribed fee/cost. Considering that information disclosed u/s 4 process is generally the information published by the public authority versus the information disclosed under section 6 process being generally the information held by the public authority, clearly there is a conflict between the First and the Last means of costing dissemination us/ 4(4). This will result in arbitrary and discretionary information dissemination, with the requester demanding it be provided free and the PIO demanding the prescribed fee/cost. It is noteworthy there is no provision in the RTI Act for a PIO to compute the (further) fee to provide information u/s 4 analogous to section 7(1).  As it is very well settled that arbitrariness and discretion cannot be be permitted in public processes, I SUGGEST that the prescribed fee for section 4(4) be deleted till such time as the RTI Act itself is not amended to remove this lacunae.

2) BECAUSE section 4 mandates the information to be disseminated suo-moto (ie. on its own) by the public authority to all citizens. Hence I SUGGEST that no fee/cost can be demanded from the citizens for the public authority's adherence to its statutory obligations.

3) BECAUSE section 4 mandates the entire section 4 disclosure to be available with the Public Information Officer, preferably in the electronic form, and disseminated widely over computer resources / networks such as the internet. Hence also I SUGGEST that no fee/cost can be demanded from the citizens for the public authority's adherence to its statutory obligations.

4) BECAUSE it is not clear how the "actual cost" of a sample of public works for quality inspection can be determined. This is an arbitrary provision. Hence I SUGGEST that no cost be prescribed to obtain samples of public works.

5) BECAUSE section 7(3) provides that further fee/cost must be reasonable. There is nothing to show that Rs. 2 per page for photocopying is reasonable. Hence I SUGGEST that only reasonable costs, ie. present open market price be used and I say that Rs 0.50 for A4 photocopy, Rs. 0.60 for foolscap/legal photocopy and Rs. 1 for A3 size photocopy be prescribed for the monochrome (B/W) copies as these are the open rates within the premises of the High Court at Delhi.

6) BECAUSE "diskette" and "floppy" are obsolete technologies. In any case it is not clear what is meant by "diskette". Hence I SUGGEST that information be standardised to provided electronically on the pervasive 4.7GB DVD-ROM standard at Rs. 20 per DVD-ROM which is a reasonable fee/cost. A ROM (Read Only Memory) is also preferable to minimise disputes that information was incomplete / tampered.

7) BECAUSE it is not clear as to under what circumstances the public authority may require to hire machine or equipment to provide information. This rule introduces a high element of discretion and arbitrariness into the further fee computation process. The Act also does not provide for a public authority to hire equipment / machines to provide information. Section 4(1)(a) of the Act requires the public authority to digitise and disseminate only such records for which resources are available. This necessarily obviates "hiring" of machines and equipment. Hence in absence of any provision in the Act, I say  there is no power available to the Central Government to prescribe such fee/cost. Furthermore, the cost of digitising records and disseminating it throughout the country is part of the public authority's statutory obligations, and the individual citizens camnot be compelled to fund this exercise. Hence I SUGGEST that this clause be scrapped.

8) BECAUSE in absence of any provision in the Act concerning mode of postage, the General Clauses Act requires documents to be sent by Registered Post only. As a matter of prudence the PIOs also prefer to send information through Registered Post. The minimum cost of Registered Post today is about Rs 20 for even the smallest letter and the rates vary with the distance. There are numerous pubic authorities which only have PIOs at a single location. This rule will discriminate between applicants near the PIOs and those located far away. It is therefore SUGGESTED that the Postal Department instead provide free of cost carriage and delivery for all RTI related communications as is already being done inwards under the Central CAPIO scheme. In the alternative, I SUGGEST that this proposed rule be scrapped.

9) BECAUSE the RTI Act only speaks of free of cost information to those below the poverty line. It does not provide that the "below poverty line" citizens are to be determined by any agency and/or government . Hence I SUGGEST that this proviso to the rule be deleteed as vires the Act.

NB:  As the legal questions involved for these Rules are complex, I am formally requesting an opportunity of personal hearing for this before the competent authority. I am also  formally requesting that the opinion of the Law Department.Ministry be obtained on my various objections / suggestions.

Submitted in my individual capacity by

Er. Sarbajit Roy
B-59 Defence Colony
New Delhi 110024
Tel : 09311448069
email ID: "sroy.mb@gmail.com"

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