Amid objections from the Opposition, the Government on Friday introduced a Bill to amend the Right To Information Act, envisaging lowering the stature of Information Commissioners and giving power to the Government to fix their salary and service conditions.
The amendment states that the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners have salaries of a Supreme Court Judge which brings Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners on a par with apex court judges. "The functions being carried out by the Election Commission of India and the Central and State Information Commissions are totally different. The Election Commission of India is a Constitutional body...On the other hand Central Information Commission and State Information Commission are statutory bodies established under the Right to Information Act, 2005," it said.
According to the Bill, the term of offices, salaries, allowances and other terms and conditions shall be "as prescribed by the Central Government". In the existing form, salaries, allowances and other terms and conditions of the service of the Chief Information Commissioner are the same as that of the Chief Election Commissioner while that of an Information Commissioner is same as that of an Election Commissioner.
Staging a walkout, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, accused the Modi Government of sabotaging the independency of the Information Commission and said that such a bill with many ramifications should be referred to the standing committee.
However, introducing the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh said no one can question the Modi government on its commitment to transparency.
He said the bill aims at institutionalisation, streamlining and ease of delivery of RTI Act and strengthens the overall RTI structure. He described it as an enabling legislation for administration purposes.
Many activists have criticised the amendments, saying it will weaken transparency panels in the country. There is a general feeling that the Government is embarrassed by certain orders of certain Information Commissioners against the Government. Shashi Tharoor (Cong) said this bill is actually "RTI elimination bill" removing two greater powers of institutional independence.
AIMIM member Assasudin Owasi said the bill is a threat to the Constitution and Parliament. He had sought a division on the introduction of the bill. While 224 members supported its introduction, nine opposed it. When Owaisi sought a division, members from Congress and Trinamool Congress walked out of proceedings.
Before the division was sought, Saugata Roy (TMC) demanded that the bill be referred to the parliamentary standing committee.
Roy pointed out that in the 15th Lok Sabha, 71 per cent of bills were referred to committees, but in the 16th Lok Sabha, only 26 per cent bills were referred to parliamentary panels. "But in this Lok Sabha, not a single bill has been referred," he said. Most of the parliamentary panels are yet to be constituted.
He said the Modi Government moved an extra mile for selection of CIC and since there was no leader of opposition in 16th Lok Sabha, the Government amended rules so that leader of largest opposition party can be included in the selection panel. Singh claimed the RTI law was clumsy in nature and was drafted in haste.