Contribution of RTI Act 2005 in last 8 years of Indian Democracy
PRIT DAYAL dayal.priti5@gmail.com Contribution of RTI Act 2005 in last 8 years of Indian Democracy
In today’s era of power of knowledge, acquisition of knowledge, new information and its application hold the key of intense impact on overall productivity gains. Almost every society has made endeavors for democratizing knowledge resources by way of putting in place the mechanisms for free flow of information and ideas so that people can access them without asking for it. People are thus empowered to make proper choices for participation in development process. Every individual or section of society requires wide range of information to be able to effectively function in the knowledge and technology driven economy.

Until 2005, an ordinary citizen has no access to information held by public authority. Under the Official Secret Act, 1923, the entire development process has thus been shrouded in secrecy. It was not easy to seek information which affected the citizens, and in lack of such knowledge it was not possible for a common man to participate in meaningful debate on political and economic options available to him.
The freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed under the constitution of India. Even then the citizens had no legal right to know about the details of public policies which disables them to scrutinize and rectify the deficiencies in policy planning and the execution program. Thus the people who voted for the formation of policy makers remain devoid of their right to know the details of the policy. Since people’s participation in decision making process is essence of democracy, they have the right to access information held by the public bodies. Thus to increase transparency and accountability at public authorities via free flow of information RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT 2005