Wednesday, March 3, 2010

[rti_india] Re: Proposed Amendment to State Rules a potential death blow to RTI in Orissa

 

No and Yes,

4(1)(c) has 2 parts

A) "while formulating important policies" (this is before the fact)
B) "announcing the decisions which affect the public"

NO, because - Issuing of rules for NRTI 2005 would not fall under A), because i) it is not a "policy" and arguably is also not "important". Legally speaking Rules under an Act are merely delegated legislation which the Legislature has pushed down to the Executive branch for procedural implementation. To emphasise that this is legislative business and NOT executive business, the RTI Act mandates "tabling" of the Rules in Parliament / State Legislature (section 29). Unfortunately section 29 does not fit well with the language of the Orissa GC Act 1937. There is a grey area when Rules issued by a State Govt under a Central Act are tabled before a State Legislature. This is Constitutionally irregular and open to challenge if there is any conflict with the Central Rules (BIG HINT for Mr Chitta Behuria - but you need a very good (and progressive) advocate - not Prashant Bhushan - to argue this)!!

YES. After the Rules are notified and come into force, the concerned P/A is obliged by 4(1)(c) to publish the final Rules as these affect the public.

Sarbajit

--- In rti_india@yahoogroups.com, C K Jam <rtiwanted@...> wrote:
>
> Re: Proposed Amendment to Orissa RTI Rules:
>
> Dear Mr Sarbajit,
>
> Can it be insisted upon under Sec 4(1)(c) ?
>
> RTIwanted
>

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