Adjudicators of the RTI Regime: A Critical Analysis of the Performance of State Information Commission, Haryana

Date01 December 2018
Published date01 December 2018
DOI10.1177/0019556118785428
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
64(4) 717–731
© 2018 IIPA
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0019556118785428
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa
Adjudicators of the RTI
Regime: A Critical
Analysis of the
Performance of
State Information
Commission, Haryana
Rajkumar Siwach1
Abstract
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has ushered in a new era of transpar-
ent governance. It makes citizens more resourceful and powerful to expose to
the public the maladministration in public authorities. But this task is challenging
due to prevailing culture of secrecy and lackadaisical attitude of Central Public
Information Officers/State Public Information Officers (CPIOs/SPIOs), who act
as hubs to implement information regime. To regulate their duties, arrangement
has been made to constitute Central Information Commission (CIC) and State
Information Commissions (SICs). Their vigilant observation and fair outlook play
a vital role in establishing corruption-free governance. This article examines the
adjudicatory role of Haryana State Information Commission by selecting the data
from 2005 to 2018 with regard to disposal of enquiries, complaints and appeals.
After presenting the powers and functions of the State Commission, year-wise
data are presented in tabular form to have a look at the performance of the com-
mission in dealing with the RTI applications. Besides, a brief summary is also given
presenting the number of delinquent SPIOs, who have not deposited the penal-
ties imposed by the commission. It is a serious challenge before the commission.
On this critical aspect, facts and arguments are discussed to assess the role of the
full commission and individual commissioners in disposal of RTI matters. Due to
lacklustre performance of the commission to ensure voluntary disclosure com-
pliance and speedy disposals, the author feels concerned and opines that if these
disquieting trends are not nipped in bud, then the commission may come to be
perceived as a mere scarecrow.
1 Professor, Department of Public Administration, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, Haryana,
India.
Corresponding author:
Rajkumar Siwach, Professor, Department of Public Administration, Chaudhary Devi Lal University,
Sirsa Haryana, India.
E-mail: rajkumarsiwach@gmail.com

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