Petition To Save The RTI From Amendment.

To,

Shree Ashok Kumar Sahoo,

Joint Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat,

222, Second Floor, Parliament Hose Annexe,

New Delhi, (India )- 110001.

Subject: - A humble request to save the RTI ACT from unwarranted Amendments.

Dear Sir/Madam,

15-June-2005 has remained a memorable day in the history of Independent India, because it was the day when the country’s highest institution fulfilled the dreams of the people by enacting the 'Right to information Act'. From the day of its inception to till date the RTI legislation has been instilling great confidence on those who were sceptic about the functioning of the government and new life has been given to the aspirations of the freedom fighters who always fought to dethrone the colonial rule in order to establish a democratic setup where transparency and accountability will be given a paramount importance.

But today it is highly unfortunate to see same parliament which has sown the seeds of accountability and transparency through the RTI Act is now trying to uproot the core principles of democracy by bringing unwarranted and undemocratic changes to the RTI Act through THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2013.

Furthermore, it is very hard to imagine the Indian parliament which is duty bound to reflect the will of the people through its law making power is trying to shatter all the noble dreams of Indian people by negating the landmark decision of Central information commission which has brought the political parties under the ambit of RTI Act by declaring the political parties as public authorities under section 2(h) of the RTI Act.At this juncture I wish to remind you that many scams which have grossly affected our economy would have never come to limelight without the help of the RTI Act 2005.

Therefore, we the students of KIIT LAW School, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar (Odisha ) would humbly request you to save the RTI Act from unwarranted amendments on basis of the reasons detailed below.

Excluding political parties will affect the democratic rights of citizens

Ascertaining Election spending and finding out the source of funding of the political parties has become a great challenge to the functioning of the democratic system. Historically it has been witnessed how the elected representatives of different political parties took the decisions in favour of few corporates giants at the cost of public interest just to repay the debt of gratitude which they received in the form of election funding. This kind of nexus shall be made public in order to gauge the credibility of the government and this can only be possible when political parties made answerable to the public by bringing them under the ambit of public authority of RTI Act.

To ensure internal democracy within the political parties

Due to the existing dynastic politics prevailed in our country it has become highly impossible to ensure democracy within the political parties where many decisions are taken unilaterally by the party heads such kind of undemocratic functioning of the political parties can only be known to the people when the political parties come under the ambit of public authorities.

Ending the practice of betrayal after the elections

Our political parties have become known for competing with each other by flooding tall promises during the time of elections and hardly implements what they promise after gaining power. So in order to stop such practices the political parties should be made answerable to the people who trusted them the most. So, the  RTI Act will aid the citizens to know the true implementation of election manifesto only if political parties are not excluded from the purview of RTI through unwarranted amendments.

On the basis of the reasons mentioned above ;

We the students of KIIT SCHOOL OF LAW, would bow before your infinite wisdom and humbly request you to take appropriate measures to save the RTI Act from unwarranted amendments which will ruin the whole essence of RTI Act that is transparency and accountability.

Thanking you Sir/Madam,

Rohit Kumar 

2nd year B.A.LL.B Student,

KIIT School of Law, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar - (751024).

Email I-d :-  rohitsingh3280@gmail.com

Same Copy sent to:- ( 1.) The President of the Republic of India.

                                ( 2.) Hon'ble Prime Minister of India.

                                ( 3.) Speaker of the Loksabha and Rajyasabha.

                                ( 4.) Law Ministry , ( Govt.of India ) 

Enclosures: Signature of 231 students.

Note: Petition Drafted by Rohit Kumar and

Raza Sameer Ahmed