Right to Information: Central government rejects 83% more applications for security reasons; For this, Section 8(1) of the RTI Act has been used extensively.

RTI applications are being rejected by the central government citing national security. During the year 2020-21, there has been an increase of 83% in the rejection of RTI applications by the central government citing national security. However, in 2020-21, the overall rejection rate was reduced by 2.95% as compared to 2019-20.

Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) analyzed the reasons for rejection of RTI applications in over 2,182 departments under different ministries of the central government. Explain that every ministry has to submit an annual report of the total RTI applications filed with it to the Central Information Commission (CEC).

A total of 1.29 crore applications were received in 2019-20
An analysis of this annual report revealed that a total of 1.29 crore RTI applications were filed in the central government ministries and departments in 2019-20. These applications were 2.48% less as compared to the financial year.

According to the CEC, 1.33 crore RTI applications were received in the country during that time. The biggest increase in these applications was in the Ministry of Health and Steel. Out of 53,537 rejected here, 1,024 applications were on national security grounds, compared to 557 applications rejected last year on this ground.

Use of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act
Nayak said that the overall rejection rate has come down, but the government has used section 8(1)a of the RTI Act to reject the application. Under this, exemption has been given for giving information affecting national security.

Even the Ministry of Consumer Affairs rejected 401 applications in the pandemic year in the name of national security. The Ministry of Labor and Employment used another provision related to seeking information about intelligence and security agencies to reject RTI applications. This was done despite no security or intelligence agency coming under the purview of the ministry.

12 thousand applications rejected under section 24
Section 24 of the RTI Act provides that no information can be sought from security officers except information relating to corruption. Nayak said- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution are the ministries which took advantage of national security in hundreds of cases during the pandemic to deny information.

Like last year, the biggest reason for rejecting RTI applications was Section 8(1) j, which prohibits giving personal information. On this basis, about 12 thousand applications were rejected in 2019-20.

What to do in such cases?
According to RTI activist Subhash Agarwal. ‘Most of such applications are related to information about service and investigations against government officials. As per the RTI Act, once the application is rejected, the applicant can file an appeal with the First Appellate Authority. This officer is a senior officer in the ministry or department. If there is no solution from here also, a second appeal can be filed in the CEC.