Context: The Central Information Commission(CIC) released its annual report. The report provides the data on the number of RTI applications received and rejected by public authorities.
Key Findings

• Public Authorities under the Central Government have received 13.74 lakh RTI applications in 2019-20. This is a nominal increase of 0.3% from 2018-19.

RTI Applications Rejected: The Centre has only rejected 4.3% of all Right to Information(RTI) requests in 2019-20, the lowest ever rate.

• However, almost 40% of the RTI rejections did not include any valid reason. It is despite the fact that these applications were not qualifying under exemptions clauses in the RTI Act.

The report shows a category of “others” used by government departments to discard applications.

• The CIC in the 2011-12 report suggested for “closer scrutiny and inspection” of “others” category as rejection ground. But no further action took place.

RTI Rejections Ministry wise

• The Home Ministry had the highest rate of RTI rejections. It rejected 20% of all RTIs received.
• The Agriculture Ministry’s rejection rate doubled from 2% in 2018-19 to 4% in 2019-20.
• The Finance Ministry also rejected more than 10,000 cases. It didn’t provide a valid reason under the Act.

About the RTI Act, 2005

• It sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens’ right to information.
• It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002.
• It seeks to empower citizens and promote accountability and transparency.
• This act was enacted in order to consolidate the fundamental right in the Indian constitution ‘freedom of speech’. 
• Since RTI is implicit in the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, it is an implied fundamental right.

Non- Applicability of RTI

• Private bodies: Private bodies are not within the Act’s ambit directly.
• Currently no parties are under the RTI Act and a case has been filed for bringing all political parties under it.