The Government of India always lays emphasis on making the lives of its citizens easy, smooth and making India truly democratic and keeping this in mind the RTI Act has been established.
RTI stands for Right To Information and has been given the status of a fundamental right under Article 19(1) of the Constitution. Article 19 (1) under which every citizen has freedom of speech and expression and have the right to know how the government works, what role does it play, what are its functions and so on.
The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain / check corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense. An informed citizenry will be better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments of government and make the government more accountable to the governed. The Act has created a practical regime through which the citizens of the country may have access to information under the control of public authorities.
The Act confers right to the citizens to know as to how the taxpayers money is being spent by the Government. A citizen has a right to seek such information from a public authority which is held by the public authority or which is held under its control. This right includes inspection of work, documents and records; taking notes, extracts or certified copied of documents or records; taking certified samples of material held by the public authority or held under the control of the public authority.
The RTI Act extends to the whole of India (except the State of Jammu and Kashmir), all bodies, which come under Government notification including NGOs, which are owned, controlled or are substantially financed by the Government.
RTI Act confers right to access to information held by a Public Authority. In case, a person has been denied the access to information he may file Appeal / Complaint before the Central Information Commission (CIC) using the CIC Online
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