20% RTIs filed with MHA rejected in 2019-20: CIC annual report

One in every five RTI applications filed with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is rejected, according to the latest annual report of the Central Information Commission.

The MHA tops the list when it comes to the proportion of RTIs rejected while in absolute numbers, the Ministry of Finance is on the top.

According to the CIC's annual report for 2019-20 released recently, the MHA received 44,453 RTI applications of which it rejected 9,095 queries citing various sections of the Right to Information Act, 2005. This comes to 20.46% of the total queries it received in 2019-20.

Among the central ministries and independent public authorities, the MHA is ranked tenth when it comes to the number of RTIs it received.

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The Ministry of Finance received the highest number of 1.92 lakh RTI requests in the previous fiscal of which it rejected 23,995 or 12.48% of the total applications.

The Ministry of Railways (1.41 lakh) and the Ministry of Communications (1.22 lakh) were second and third when it comes to the receipt of RTI applications but their rejection rate was very low at 1.18% (1,663) and 1.69% (2,078). Delhi government received 1.08 lakh RTI queries while its rejection rate was just 1.40% (1,513).

Altogether, there was 13.74 lakh RTIs filed in 2019-20 compared to 13.70 lakh in 2018-19. Of this, 58,634 were rejected, which is 4.27% of the total requests -- the lowest proportion of rejection since RTI's inception in 2005.

Section 8 (1), which allows denial of information if such matters are prejudicial to the country's interest, impedes investigation and third party information, of the RTI Act, is the most used provision to deny information -- it has been cited 28,585 times. Section 24, which exempts intelligence and security organisations, has been cited 8,504 times.

Altogether, around 56% of RTI applications in 2019-20 were rejected citing provisions exempting disclosure of personal information and exemption given to security and intelligence agencies.