20 years of RTI Act: The slow unravelling of India’s transparency law

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, born out of grassroots struggle and public demand, is today drifting far from the people who fought for it. Enacted 20 years ago to ensure transparency and accountability, the law now stands weakened, its spirit eroded by successive government amendments and institutional apathy. Even those who once used it most effectively believe it is now almost defunct.

“Why do you, a poorly educated woman, want the RTI?” a journalist once asked Sushila at a press conference, a member of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), in 1996 — nine years before the RTI Act came into being. Her reply silenced the room: “When I send my son to the market with Rs 10, I ask him to account for how he spent it. The government spends crores of rupees — government money is our money, so why can’t we ask for an accounting?”

From a mud house to a mass movement

In 1990, Aruna Roy, along with her colleagues, founded the MKSS on May Day in a mud house in Devdungri village, Rajsamand district, Rajasthan. She had left the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) to devote herself to social service. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the RTI Act are both products of this movement.

A turning point came when the MKSS exposed corruption in development projects at its first public hearing, held on December 2, 1994 in Kot Kirana village, Pali district, Rajasthan. This hearing strengthened the demand for the right to know. According to Discussion Paper Series 4: People's Right to Information Movement – Lessons from Rajasthan, published by the Human Development Resource Centre, the second public hearing, held on December 7, 1994 in Bhim town, Rajsamand district, revealed numerous cases of corruption. It investigated irregularities in the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, Apna Gaon Apna Kaam, Tees Zila Tees Kaam, and Indira Awas Yojana schemes.

The third public hearing, held on 17 December 1994 in Vijaypura, Rajsamand district, and the fourth, on January 7, 1995 in Jawaja, Ajmer district, continued to expose corruption in development projects and government schemes. The impact of these early hearings was substantial: several officials were prosecuted on serious charges of corruption. These public hearings ultimately led to an announcement in the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in April 1995 by the then Chief Minister, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, that the public would be granted the right to information regarding all matters of Panchayati Raj institutions.

When that promise went unfulfilled, the MKSS launched an indefinite sit-in at Beawar in April 1996, where thousands gathered under the banner of Hamara paisa, hamara hisaab (Our money, our accounting). The campaign spread across India, inspiring similar movements in other states. Tamil Nadu was the first to enact a state-level RTI law in 1997. By 2001, Goa, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi had followed suit.

The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), established in 1996, drafted the first version of a national RTI law. After nearly a decade of advocacy, Parliament passed the Right to Information Act on May 12, 2005; it received presidential assent on June 15 and came into force on October 12, 2005.

According to former Central Information Commissioner Neeraj Gupta, the right of Indian citizens to access information about government activities was first recognised by Justice KK Mathew in the case of State of Uttar Pradesh vs Raj Narain. In SP Gupta vs Union of India, the Supreme Court clearly stated that the right to information falls within the scope of the right to freedom of speech and expression. 

Gupta further noted that in Shri Kulwal vs Jaipur Municipal Corporation, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to information is explicitly included within the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution.

A right eroded

Twenty years on, however, RTI activists and even Central Information Commissioners acknowledge that the law has lost its edge. According to the commission’s 2023-24 report, 1.75 million RTI applications were filed last year,double the number from a decade earlier, but a record 67,615 applications were rejected. The growing demand for transparency contrasts sharply with shrinking access to information.

Sanjoy Basu, author of Vada Faramoshi, which was written using the RTI Act, believes that obtaining information has become increasingly difficult. According to him, officials have lost all fear of the law. Neeraj Kumar, co-author of the book, also notes that while the process of filing RTI applications has been simplified, access to information remains difficult even after approaching the information commissions.

Between 2005 and 2008, Neeraj managed the call centre and national helpline established by the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust to promote the use of the RTI Act. He explains that, initially, programmes such as Janane Ka Haq were launched on Doordarshan and FM radio to raise awareness about RTI. During these programmes, the helpline received hundreds of calls. Neeraj adds that such initiatives have since come to an end, and many non-profit organisations and individuals working on the RTI Act have become disillusioned and fallen silent. Consequently, RTI activism has reached a standstill.

Afroz Alam Sahil, a journalist who frequently uses RTI in his reporting, puts it bluntly. “It is deeply regrettable that in the past 20 years, the RTI has regressed rather than progressed. The need was to strengthen the law so that people would not have to ask for information, but the situation has turned out to be quite the opposite.” 

Sahil told Down To Earth that even during the UPA government, the state of RTI implementation was unsatisfactory, yet it was through this law that several major scams were exposed. After the change of government in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised transparency and accountability, even introducing the 3T formula — Timely, Transparent, Trouble-Free Access to Information — in his speeches. “The government has not only gone back on those promises but is actively weakening the law by creating various obstacles.”

“Today,” Sahil says, “questions that used to be answered easily are now almost impossible to get a response to. Applications are tossed between departments under Section 6(3), and the information never arrives. Worse, police sometimes turn up at the homes of applicants. Ordinary citizens are now afraid to file RTIs.”

He adds that the information commissions themselves have become dysfunctional. “Millions of cases are pending, commissioners’ posts are vacant, and decisions take years. Information officers know they won’t face consequences even if they ignore requests. Accountability has vanished.”

What began in a mud house in Devdungri as a demand for people’s right to know has come full circle—towards silence. Two decades after its passage, India’s Right to Information Act stands as both a testament to citizen action and a casualty of official indifference.