InfoRights

Public Authorities

A Public Authority is the object of the Right to Information Act, its subject being the the information held by or under control of the Public Authority.It is a misnomer to think of Public Authorities as only organizations of governance in the Country. A private organization can also be a Public Authority under this Act. This is a unique feature of Indian initiative. There is another revolutionary provision of our Right to Information Act. Information relating to private bodies under control of Public Authorities can also be the subject matter of request by citizens. In this sense, every business organization and every charitable organization falls into the purview of this Act. Nothing has been left out except Schedule 2 organizations notified by Governments.

The Right to Information Act covers all three organs of governance, the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. The Act defines Public Authority as follows:

2.

(h)

"public authority" means any authority or body or institution of self- government established or constituted—

(a)

by or under the Constitution;

(b)

by any other law made by Parliament;

(c)

by any other law made by State Legislature;

(d)

by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—

(i)

body owned, controlled or substantially financed;

(ii)

non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government;

All institutions created by the Constitution of India, even if totally autotnomous, like the Election Commission of India, are Public Authorities.All institutions created by any Act of Parliament or the State Legislature, inclding the apex body under the Right to Information Act, the Information Commissions across the country, are Public Authorities.Even organizations created by notifications of the Government are included. Nothing related to governance of the Country has been ommitted or missed out. What a wonderful situation!. Anyone engaged in kind of governance can be called upon by the citizens to supply information. The framers of the Law have gone ahead and have given a thought to the spending of Government money. They seem to have realized that a lot of private organizations are thriving on money provided by the Government. All such organizations including the NGOs have been roped in and brought on same footing as any organization of Governance. These organization shall be Public Authorities provided the role of Government funds, direct or indirect, is substantial.

The most striking feature of the Right to Information Act is the definition of information itself. It reads as under:

(f)

"information" means any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force;

Information relating to private bodies which can be accessed by any Public Authority under any Law is also information for the purpose of the Act. And it can be requested by any citizen. It is his right. This right has been defined in Section 2(j) which specifically talks of information under control of any Public Authority. The sub-section reads as follows:

(j)

"right to information" means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to— -----"

The Public authorities have been cast upon with heavy responsibilities of continuing pro-active disclosure along with streamlining of records and their maintenance. Public should have minimum occassion to resort to provisions of the Act to request for information is the philosophy of the Act. The Public Authorities should suo-motu publish and publicise as much information about themselves as possible. And, in the form and manner most suitable for easy access by the public.Various modes have been suggested in the Act itself!. An openness beyond imagination till the Act was promulgated. These provisions are contained in Section 4 of the Act which reads as follows:

4.	(1)		Every public authority shall—
		(a)	maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated;
		(b)	publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,—
			(i)	the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties;
			(ii)	the powers and duties of its officers and employees;
			(iii)	the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability;
			(iv)	the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions;
			(v)	the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions;
			(vi)	a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control;
			(vii)	the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof;
			(viii)	a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public;
			(ix)	a directory of its officers and employees;
			(x)	the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations;
			(xi)	the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made;
			(xii)	the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes;
			(xiii)	particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it;
			(xiv)	details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form;
			(xv)	the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use;
			(xvi)	the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers;
			(xvii)	such other information as may be prescribed and thereafter update these publications every year;
		(c)	publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public;
		(d)	provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons.
	(2)		It shall be a constant endeavour of every public authority to take steps in accordance with the requirements of clause (b) of sub-section (1) to provide as much information suo motu to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet, so that the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information.
	(3)		For the purposes of sub-section (1), every information shall be disseminated widely and in such form and manner which is easily accessible to the public.
	(4)		All materials shall be disseminated taking into consideration the cost effectiveness, local language and the most effective method of communication in that local area and the information should be easily accessible, to the extent possible in electronic format with the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, available free or at such cost of the medium or the print cost price as may be prescribed.
			Explanation.—For the purposes of sub-sections (3) and (4), "disseminated" means making known or communicated the information to the public through notice boards, newspapers, public announcements, media broadcasts, the internet or any other means, including inspection of offices of any public authority.

A large number of organizations departments and Ministeries have come up with their web-sites containing a lot of information about themselves. One of the first ones to do so in the most comprehensive manner was the PIB, and, why not. They have put up almost everything about themselves on their web-site. Slowly, every organization of the Government is following suit. The day is not far when citizens of India shall know almost everything about governance through the internet.

Public Authorities shall ordinarily be organizations (Exceptions can be there in say Commissions appointed by Government). They ought to have an interface for the public, with whom public shall deal or who shall deal with public. The Right to Information Act envisages appointment of Public Information Officers to receive applications requesting for information, deal with them and take decisions on whether or not to supply the information. Public Authorities have therefore to appoint these Officers under the Act. Every administrative unit and office within the Public Authority ought to have one Public Information Officer. The Act says -- "as many". At the lower levels of the hierarchy, which the Act describes as "sub-divisionsl or sub-district leve" an Assistant Public Information officer has to be designated to receive applications (request and appeal) for being forwarded to the concerned Public Information officer or the appelate authority, as the case may be.The Controlling Officer of the Public Information officer automatically becomes the First Appellate authority under the Act. The relevant provisions of the Act relating to designating Public Information Officers and Assistant Public Inofrmation Officers are contained in Section 5(1) and 5(2) of the Act which reads as follows:

(1)

Every public authority shall, within one hundred days of the enactment of this Act, designate as many officers as the Central Public Information Officers or State Public Information Officers, as the case may be, in all administrative units or offices under it as may be necessary to provide information to persons requesting for the information under this Act.

(2)

Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (1), every public authority shall designate an officer, within one hundred days of the enactment of this Act, at each sub-divisional level or other sub-district level as a Central Assistant Public Information Officer or a State Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be, to receive the applications for information or appeals under this Act for forwarding the same forthwith to the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or senior officer specified under sub-section (1) of section 19 or the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be:

Provided that where an application for information or appeal is given to a Central Assistant Public Information Officer or a State Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be, a period of five days shall be added in computing the period for response specified under sub-section (1) of section 7.