RIGHT TO INFORMATION AND GOOD GOVERNANCE UNDER THE INDIAN PROSPECTIVE

By Dr. SHAIKH SAHANWAZ ISLAM Lecturer in Law Capital Law College Utkal University,Bhubaneswar

According to Justice P.N.Bhagwati, No democratic Government can survive without accountability and Openness in Government is a guarantee against Administrative misconduct. This is the age of information affluence. Technology, with its capacity for storing, simplifying and communicating information with astonishing speed has, more than ever, put information at the centre of development. Information is a global resource of unlimited potential for all. Importantly, information belongs not to the state, the government of the day or civil servants, but to the public. Officials do not create information for their own benefit alone, but for the benefit of the public they serve, as part of the legitimate and routine discharge of the governments duties. Information is generated with public money by public servants paid out of public funds. Therefore, it cannot be unreasonably kept from citizens. Good Governance is an essential ingredient for socio-economic development of the country. The govt. of India and state govt. come out with new ideas and approaches but these dont succeed when put to action because of lack of good governance. Good governance is of paramount importance in these times for far reaching changes. In the backdrop of major changes, we need to re-orient ourselves to deliver ways and means to promote good governance. No government of course can hope to survive without a strong and effective good governance nor can an administrative system exist without the support of those it was established to serve.

NECESSITY OF INFORMATION: A well informed public can participate more effectively in a democracy. Parliament, press and public must be able to properly follow and scrutinize the actions of government. Secrecy is a major impediment to this accountability. Public servants take important decisions which affect many people and to be accountable, the administration (government) must be more transparent about what they are doing. Better information flows make governments more effective and help towards the more flexible development of policy and Enhance public cooperation and participation with the government. 1

BASIC PRINCIPLES:(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) Ensures Peoples Participation. Ensures Accountability. Ensures Transparency. Protects the Civil Liberties. Ensures the Strengthening of Public Opinion. Ensures Good Governance.

(i) Ensures people's participation Since most of the governmental works are carried out for the people, people must be involved in the planning process and must know exactly how things are being done. To participate in planning processes and judgment of whether certain plans and schemes are useful for them or not, people must have sufficient information about the nature of the projects and programmes. This will enable them to give their opinion well in time for required changes or modifications. This will reduce project costs and will increase project outputs manifold. (ii) Ensures Accountability Ours is a democratic system of governance in which the government is run for the benefit of the public at large and not for the benefit of one person or a few persons. Governance from the village to the central level therefore has to be accountable to the people. People have a right to know what the government is doing. A Right to Information will ensure that people can hold public bodies accountable on a regular basis, without having to lay the entire burden on their elected representatives who are themselves often unable to get the information sought in spite of all the resources at their command. (iii) Ensures Transparency There is a presumption that everything that is done by the government is done for the public good-which means, it is done to further the objective of public well-being, is done honestly with optimum benefits from the funds used. However, as we all know, in recent times, this presumption has been eroded to a great extent by misuse, misappropriation and also careless use of public funds. To counter this, it is essential that there should be complete transparency in all public dealings. This is bound to bring about a more careful utilization and application of funds. Transparency will also help people to hold the officials accountable for their mishandling of public time and money. Transparency would go a long way in helping to expose the corrupt and allowing the honest to do their jobs without fear or favour. (iv) Protects the Civil Liberties The right to information is essential for protecting liberties of citizens by making it easier for civil society groups to monitor wrongdoings like custodial deaths and the abuse of preventive detention legislation. Custodial institutions are some of the most opaque places in the

country. Violations in custody range from deaths in custody, keeping convicts in jail long even after they have served their sentences, and abuse of women. Effective community monitoring of these institutions is dependent upon access to information. Some governments are even considering providing the right to information explicitly in relation to prisons. (v) Ensure the Strengthening of Public Opinion. Even if the government provides for the right to information, the citizens resort to media like newspaper, radio, television etc for day to day information about government activities. The media provides a link between the citizens and its government. So, it is essential that media is able to access information. The media's right to information is not a special privilege but rather an aspect of the public's right to know. The lack of a right to access official information causes many problems for the media. Balanced reporting becomes difficult when the primary sources of information are denied. In absence of exact information, they provide biased news, suppressing or distorting information. By providing right to information, media and citizens would together make the government more accountable. (VI) Practice of Good Governance. In rural areas, numerous schemes for providing food, housing, employment and education are run by the central and state government. These schemes are meant for the poorest of the poor in the rural areas. There is wide spread criticism that these funds have been routinely misappropriated or misused on a large scale. In most cases, people do not know about the existence of these schemes, even if they know they do not get their entitlements under the scheme, paving the way for them to accept less than their allocation. Furthermore, records are often tampered because no one outside the administration has access to them. By providing entire information on these schemes to the public would make the administration more accountable.2 No

BENEFITS OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Democratic Participation and Understanding:FOI is essential for public participation. Democracy is based on the consent of the citizens and that consent turns on the government informing citizens about their activities and recognizing their right to participate. The public is only truly able to participate in the democratic process when they have information about the activities and policies of the government. Protecting Other Rights:FOI laws can improve the enforcement of many other economic and political rights. In India, the FOI laws are used to enforce rations distribution by revealing that food vendors are not providing the government-subsidized food to impoverished citizens. This has resulted in substantial changes in the food distribution system to ensure that citizens are getting their food while vendors are getting adequate compensation.

 Making Government Bodies Work Better:FOI laws also improve the working of government bodies work. Decisions that are known to be eventually made public are more likely to be based on objective and justifiable reasons. FOI is considered a key tool in anti-corruption measures as reasons for awarding contracts and other financial transactions must be documented and justified. Redressing Past Harms:In countries that have recently made the transition to democracy, FOI laws allow governments to break with the past and allow society and the victims and their families of abuses to learn what happened and better understand. Almost all newly developed or modified constitutions include a right to access information from government bodies as a fundamental human or civil right. Good governance means the efficient and effective administration in a democratic framework. It involves high level organizational efficiency and effectiveness corresponding in a responsive way in order to attain the predetermined desirable goals of society. According to the World Bank document entitled Governance and Development (1992), the parameters of good governance are as follows:3 1) Legitimacy of the political system. This implies limited and democratic government. 2) Freedom of association and participation by various social, economic, religious, cultural and professional groups in the process of governance. 3) An established legal framework based on the rule of law and independence of judiciary to protect human rights, secure social justice and guard against exploitation and abuse of power. 4) Bureaucratic accountability including transparency in administration. 5) Freedom of information and expression required for formulation of public policies, decision-making, monitoring and evaluation of government performance. 6) A sound administrative system leading to efficiency and effectiveness. 7) Co-operation between government and civil society organizations. 4 Similar principles have been enunciated by the OECD, which emphasizes on legitimate government, accountability of political and official elements of government, competence of government to make policy and deliver services; and respect for human rights and rule of law. In light of the above, if one were to venture a list of parameters that go into determination of the quality of governance, the major factors would include limited Government, legitimacy of the Government, political and bureaucratic accountability, freedom of information and expression, transparency and cost effective administration, established legal framework based on rule of law for protecting the human life, securing social justice and checking abuse of power.4

Components of Good Governance:The main components of good governance are: 1. Improving service delivery To provide services to the people in accordance with specified standards, devoid of harassment or corruption, minimising waiting time or inconvenience to the members of the public; To ensure cost effectiveness in the provision of services by adopting the most appropriate system; To adopt participatory mechanisms in public service delivery, involving the people, peoples institutions, civil society groups, community based organisations, and selfhelp groups; 2. System improvement To take steps to simplify government procedures, reduce costs and improve interface with citizens; To improve systems in order to improve transparency, cut red tape and ensure better performance management; To modify complicated and rigid government processes so as to reduce and eliminate delay, duplication and redundancy, and improve the speed and quality of public service; 3. Financial management To ensure fiscal responsibility and sanctity of the budget process; To move away from expenditure targets to performance-related measures and milestones which can be defined and are measurable; and To institute effective budget formulation, execution, monitoring, reporting and asset management in order to ensure that public money is made available quickly and without delay for the purpose for which it is meant and utilised properly for the benefit of the people. 4. Accountability and transparency To develop and implement Citizens Charters and Service Charters so as to obtain feedback on implementation and take corrective action with the involvement of citizens; To develop and implement a grievances monitoring and redressal mechanism to ensure sensitivity of the administration to the problems faced by the citizens; To end secrecy and opacity in administration and bring about transparency so that the administration is seen as just and fair, especially in matters relating to public procurement;

 To ensure that citizens have maximum access to governmental information, by making transparency the rule and official secrecy the exception; and

5. Anti-corruption measures To declare zero tolerance for corruption, strengthen vigilance and anti-corruption machinery, eliminate duplication in enforcement functions and to promote measures to prevent and combat corruption more effectively and efficiently. RTI can be used to undertake social audit of govt. processes, programmes and schemes i.e., National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes, Public Distribution Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services, Primary Health Services, Primary Education.5
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme:

Volunteers from CSOs can inspect mandatory records maintained by Gram Panchayats & seek information & explanation under the scheme. Records that can be verified include: Application Registration Register Job Card Register Employment Register Estimate Register

Public Distribution System:

Volunteers from CSOs can invoke the RTI Act to collect information and verify the following under this process: Register/s containing names of card holder. Stock registers to assess the total stock Sale registers List of BPL cardholders

Integrated Child Development Services:

Volunteers from CSOs can enquire and ensure whether proper services are provided at ICDS (Anganwadi) centre. RTI Act can be used to get information on: (sub. to exemptions) Registration of beneficiaries Attendance of children and Anganwadi Teacher

Growth monitoring of children & pregnant women Participation in immunization

Primary Health Services

RTI can be used significantly to enhance PHC service delivery. Volunteers from CSOs can seek information with respect to the functioning of the PHC such as: (sub. to exemptions) Field visits & supervisory visits of the PHC staff Stock registers and inventory of medicines No. of Outpatients treated No. of Surgeries conducted and their success rate

Primary Education:

CSOs can take a lead role in ensuring that the public education system function efficiently. The RTI Act can be used for accessing the following information: (sub. to exemptions) etc.6 Teacher Attendance Registers Pupil Attendance Registers Teaching standards in the schools (Curriculum and daily lessons) Infrastructure standards in schools (Class rooms, black boards, teaching aids, toilets

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Right to Information and Good Governance are two sides of one coin. In sans of right to information good governance cannot be felt. To ensure good governance; Decisions must be taken in the public interest. Every decision must be able to stand close scrutiny. Administration must be transparent. Nothing should be done in secret. Secrecy breeds evil. The reasons for taking a decision must be recorded for all to see. This will also help to eliminate the almost universal corruption in politics and administration today.7 According to Mr. D. R. Kaarthikeyan , President, Foundation for Peace, Harmony and Good Governance,

The Right to Information Act is considered to be the most revolutionary of all enactments in Independent India. The right to information and the assurance of widespread citizen participation in public affairs and an active civil society are essential for the full realization of democracy. The Right to Information is the key to democracy and development in, * Making participatory democracy meaningful * Cementing trust in government * Supporting people-centered development * Facilitating equitable economic growth * Tackling corruption Lack of access to information and lack of knowledge about the decision-making process account for much of peoples sense of helplessness. Government must assume its responsibility and mobilize skills to ensure a flow of information to citizens. The tradition of secrecy should be discarded. In fact, the oath of secrecy should be replaced with an oath of transparency. While the right to information is a means of determining the justness (or lack thereof) of the States actions, it should accord high importance to the public interest. Lastly, the right to information has its own limitations and is not a substitute for good governance, but rather is intended to support and advance the process. 8 Suggestions:The following areas may be worth analyzing: Ensure voluntary disclosure of information Employ adequate manpower to handle the process. Set up an information bank. Organize awareness campaigns. Limit exemption areas. Issue detailed guidelines for proper implementation of the right to information (in local languages where necessary). Appropriate use of the media. Secure sufficient budget allocations. Institute an award or recognition for best performance in the proper handling of information requests.

REFERRENCE 1. www.righttoinformation.info 2.
The Publics Right to Know; Principles on Freedom of Information Legislation Published by International Standards Series.

3.

Good Governance in International Law: An Indian Perspective, Paper submitted on ILA Regional conference, South Africa [27th-29th August, 2007 (Pretoria)]. 4. Y.K. Sabharwal, Chief Justice of India, Right to Information, Issues of Administrative Efficiency, Public Accountability and Constitutional Governance, Page.7. 5. Karnataka Human Development Report 2005.

6. Right to Information and Civil Society Organisation, this Article is collected from Internet And
Open Society Justice Initiative website available at http:// www. Justiceinitiative.org. accessed july 21, 2005. 07. Mrs. Chakravarthi Rekha, Topic Right to Information: Essence of Good Governance, Report of Seminar held at the Indian Habitat Centre on 10 December 2007, by, Research Officer, IPCS. 08. Mr. K. Malaisamy (India) and Mr. A. Dismore (United Kingdom), FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION, Draft report submitted by the co-Rapporteurs.