It is said that “information is power”, but when information remains limited to a select few, it corrupts individuals and governments, damages institutions and handicaps society by hampering the fundamentals of participatory democracy.
Having spent 36 years in the Indian Police Service, former Central Information Commissioner M.L. Sharma knows how bureaucracy uses information as a source of power. He has witnessed it from close quarters while handling some of the most complicated cases of political and bureaucratic corruption during the 18 years he spent at the Central Bureau of Investigation. Sharma was CBI special director when he was appointed to the Central Information Commission (CIC) in 2008.
In his book, Right to Information & Jurisprudence, Sharma explains the domestic and global perspectives of ‘Right to Information’, its evolution in India and why people will not be able to adequately exercise their rights as citizens or make informed choices in its absence.
The book is a commentary and compendium of 29 judgements of the Supreme Court, 374 judgements of High Courts and 156 decisions of the Central Information Commission, providing rich content and analysis for stakeholders ranging from RTI activists, public-spirited citizens/organisations and information officers and judicial authorities. It helps the reader navigate through hundreds of important verdicts, ending with the landmark CIC order in 2013 when it ruled that political parties came within the ambit of the RTI. The order reiterated the importance of transparency for all state organs, and also for political parties, which actually control them.
Sharma recounts the response of various political parties on the issue: the BJP and the Congress made a bland assertion that they were not public authorities; the CPI(M) disclosed some information regarding the land allotted to it by the Central government, but refused to concede that it was a public authority under section 2(h) of the RTI Act; and the CPI was divided on the issue. All parties contended that if they were deemed public authorities, their rivals would maliciously file RTI applications against them during elections, wasting their time and energy and affecting their functioning. The CIC, however, ruled that the validity of the statute cannot be questioned only on the basis of the presumption of its possible misuse. It felt that the statute would usher in an era of transparency in their functioning and strengthen democracy and democratic institutions.
Sharma’s book does not merely cover the journey of the RTI Act over 15 years, but clearly elucidates the importance of RTI jurisprudence. Justice A.K. Sikri, former judge of the Supreme Court, rightly noted in his foreword to the book that merely passing a statute and granting the “right to know” to the people is not sufficient. “Such right should not remain on paper and it necessitates proper and effective implementation of the provisions of the Act,” observes Sikri.
This is where the role of jurisprudence, as explained by Sharma, comes in, making it imperative to have a detailed audit of this revolutionary enactment. Sikri says this would help in finding out whether the law has served its purpose and also what needs to be done to ensure its proper implementation and to thwart any attempt to meddle with its provisions.
Right to Information & Jurisprudence
By M.L. Sharma
Published by Vitasta Publishing Pvt Ltd
Price Rs1,995; pages 912