3.85% RTI applications rejected in 2020-21: CIC report

One in every seven RTI applications filed with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and one in every 10 submitted to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) are rejected, according to the latest annual report of the Central Information Commission (CIC).

The Annual Report 2020-21, however, showed that there is a dip in the number of rejections citing various provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 at 51,390 or 3.85% of 16.82 lakh -- the lowest rejection since the transparency law was enforced, which included 13.38 lakh in the last fiscal.

In 2019-20, the number of RTIs rejected were 58,634 or 4.27% of 16.84 lakh queries. Since 2014-15 -- when there were 63,351 or 8.39% of 8.45 lakh RTI queries -- there has been a decline in rejection.

The MHA had the highest proportion of rejection in 2020-21 -- it dealt with 59,286 queries and rejected 8,711 or 14.69%. This was a better performance compared to 2019-20 when it rejected 20.46% of 44,453 RTI queries.

Read | Over 2.94% drop in RTI queries during Covid year 2020-21

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

The MoF received the highest number of 1.70 lakh RTI requests of which it rejected 17,252 or 10.12%. In 2019-20, it was 23,995 or 12.48% of 1.92 lakh.

The Ministry of Railways (1.23 lakh) and the Ministry of Labour and Employment (1.18 lakh) were second and third when it comes to receipt of RTI applications but their rejection rate was very low at 1.46% (1,798) and 2.29% (2,646).

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had one of the lowest rejection rates -- 0.72% or 438 rejections out of 60,423 RTI queries. Only the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has better statistics than the MoFHW -- 0.71% or 134 of 18,853 RTI queries.

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 25,367 times as against 28,585 in 2019-20.

Section 24, which exempts intelligence and security organisations, has been cited 10,121 times as against 8,504 in the previous year.

Of the rejections, Section 8(1) accounted for 47.38% and Section 24 for 18.9%.

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