NGOs WILL FALL UNDER RTI ACT

 

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: 

• Recent Supreme Court Decision on NGOs

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News Flash

Supreme Court ruled that the NGOs that are “substantially financed, directly or indirectly”, by government funds will fall within the ambit of “public authority” under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

Now, NGOs will have to maintain records and every citizen will have the right to get information from them.

Judgment

The judgment came from a bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose while dismissing claims by certain universities and schools which fought that they are not public authority under the Act. The court said the institutions concerned were substantially financed and are public authority within the meaning of the Act.

 

Substantial means

• In the court’s view, ‘substantial’ means a large portion. It does not necessarily have to mean a major portion or more than 50 percent”.
• Substantial financing can be both direct or indirect.

 

RTI Act, 2005

• It is an act of parliament.
• Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.
• The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.

 

Source: Indian Express

 

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