Excerpts from Chapter 10 (Summary of Recommendations) of the 1^st Report of Second Administrative Reforms Commission, Government of India submitted to Prime Minister on 9th June ’06

1. The Official Secrets Act (Para 2.2.12) : a. The Official Secrets Act, 1923 should be repealed, and substituted by a chapter in the National Security Act, containing provisions relating to official secrets.

2. Governmental Privilege in Evidence (Para 2.3.8) : a. Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 should be amended to read as follows: “123.(1)Subject to the provisions of this section, no one shall be permitted to give any evidence derived from official records which are exempt from public disclosure under the RTI Act, 2005. …………… Section 124 of the Indian Evidence Act will become redundant on account of the above and will have to be repealed.

3. The Oath of Secrecy (Para 2.4.4): a. As an affirmation of the importance of transparency in public affairs, Ministers on assumption of office may take an oath of transparency alongwith the oath of office and the requirement of administering the oath of secrecy should be dispensed with. Articles 75(4) and 164 (3), and the Third Schedule should be suitably amended.

4. Exempted organizations (Para 2.5.6) : a. The Armed Forces should be included in the Second Schedule of the Act. (b) The Second Schedule of the Act may be reviewed periodically. (c ) All organizations listed in the Second Schedule have to appoint PIOs. Appeals against orders of PIOs should lie with CIC/SICs.

5. The Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules (Para 3.1.4) : a. Civil Services Rules of all States may be reworded on the following lines: “Communication of Official Information: Every Government servant shall, in performance of his duties in good faith, communicate to a member of public or any organisation full and accurate information, which can be disclosed under the Right to Information Act, 2005.”

6. The Manual of Office Procedure (Para 3.2.3) : a. Para 116 of the Manual of Office Procedure needs to be reworded as follows:. “Communication of Official Information: Every Government Servant shall, in performance of his duties in good faith, communicate to a member of public or any organization full and accurate information, which can be disclosed under the Right to Information Act. ………. (c ) The State Governments may be advised to carry out similar amendments in their Manuals, if such provisions exist therein.

7. Classification of Information (Para 4.1.8) : a. The GOI should amend the Manual of Departmental Security Instructions in the following manner:  ( i.) Information Deserving Classification (Para 3)- It would be advisable for each Ministry/ Department to identify the information which deserves to be given a security classification. Ordinarily, only such information should be given a security classification which would qualify for exemption from disclosure under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

8. Building Institutions (Para 5.2.5): (a) Section 12 of the Act may be amended to constitute the Selection Committee of CIC with the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India. Section 15 may be similarly amended to constitute the Selection Committee at the State level with the Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of the High Court. ………….. ( d) At least half of the members of the Information Commissions should be drawn from non civil services background. Such a provision may be made in the Rules under the Act, by the Union Government, applicable to both CIC and SICs.

9. Designating Information Officers and Appellate Authorities (Para 5.3.4) : (i) All Ministries/ Departments/Agencies/Offices with more than one PIO have to designate a nodal Assistant Public Information Officer with the authority to receive requests for information on behalf of all PIOs.

10. Organising Information and Recordkeeping (Para 5.4.11): (a ) Suo motu disclosures should also be available in the form of printed, priced publication in the official language, revised periodically….. . Such a publication should be available for reference, free of charge.

11. Capacity Building and Awareness Generation (Para 5.5.5.): (a) Training programmes should not be confined to merely PIOs and APIOs. ….. These training programmes have to be organized in a decentralized manner in every block. ---------- (c) Awareness campaigns should be entrusted to credible non profit organizations at the State level. ………. (d ) Appropriate governments should bring out guides and comprehensible information material within the prescribed time. (e) The CIC and the SICs may issue guidelines for the benefit of public authorities and public officials in particular and public in general about key concepts in the Act and approach to be taken in response to information requests on the lines of the Awareness Guidance Series referred to above (para 5.5.1).

12. Monitoring Mechanism (Para 5.6.4): (a) The CIC and the SICs may be entrusted with the task of monitoring effective implementation of Right to Information Act in all public authorities. ………………( b) As a large number of Public Authorities exist at regional, state, district and sub district level, a nodal officer should be identified wherever necessary by the appropriate monitoring authority (CIC/SIC) to monitor implementation of the Act. (c) Each public authority should be responsible for compliance of provisions of the Act in its own office as well as that of the subordinate public authorities.

13. Facilitating Access (Para 6.2.7): (a) In addition to the existing modes of payment, appropriate governments should amend the Rules to include payment through postal orders. (b) States may be required to frame Rules regarding application fee which are in harmony with the Central Rules. It needs to be ensured that the fee itself does not become a disincentive. …. (d) State Governments may issue appropriate stamps in suitable denominations as a mode of payment of fees. (e) As all the post offices in the country have already been authorized to function as APIOs on behalf of Union Ministries/Departments, they may also be authorized to collect the fees in cash and forward a receipt along with the application.

14. Inventory of Public Authorities (Para 6.3.2):  -------------- (c ) Each public authority should have the details of all public authorities subordinate to it at the immediately next level. This should continue till the last level is reached. All these details should be made available on the websites of the respective public authorities, in a hierarchical form.

15. Single Window Agency at District Level (Para 6.4.2): a. A Single Window Agency should be set up in each District. This could be achieved by creating a cell in a district-level office, and designating an officer as the Assistant Public Information Officer for all public authorities served by the Single Window Agency. The office of the District Collector/ Deputy Commissioner, or the Zilla Parishad is well suited for location of the cell.

16. Subordinate Field Offices and Public Authorities (Para 6.5.4): a. The lowest office in any organization which has decision making power or is a custodian of records should be recognized as a public authority.

17. Application to Non Governmental Bodies (Para 6.6.6): ----- (b ) Norms should be laid down that any institution or body that has received 50% of its annual operating costs, or a sum equal to or greater than Rs.1 crore during any of the preceding 3 years should be understood to have obtained ‘substantial funding’ from the government for the period and purpose of such funding. (c ) Any information which, if it were held by the government, would be subject to disclosure under the law, must remain subject to such disclosure even when it is transferred to a non-government body or institution.

19. Mechanism for Redressal of Public Grievances (Para 6.8.3): a. States may be advised to set up independent public grievances redressal authorities to deal with complaints of delay, harassment or corruption. These authorities should work in close coordination with the SICs/District Single Window Agencies, and help citizens use information as a tool to fight against corruption and misgovernance, or for better service.

21. Application of the Act to the Legislature and the Judiciary (Para 7.11): ( a) A system of indexing and cataloguing of records of the legislatures, which facilitates easy access should be put in place. This could be best achieved by digitising all the records and providing access to citizens with facilities for retrieving records based on intelligible searches. (b) A tracking mechanism needs to be developed so that the action taken by the executive branch on various reports like CAG, Commissions of Enquiry and House Committees is available to legislators and public, online. (c ) The working of the legislative committees should be thrown open to the public. ….. (d) The records at the district court and the subordinate courts should be stored in a scientific way, by adopting uniform norms for indexing and cataloguing. (e ) The administrative processes in the district and the subordinate courts should be computerized in a time bound manner. These processes should be totally in the public domain.

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