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Debate: A 'know' show for India Inc
Published on Tue, May 22, 2007 at 01:24, Updated on Tue, May 22, 2007 at 08:26 in Nation section
Tags: RTI, Right To Information
KNOW WAY! CIC Wajahat Habibullah says RTI will empower corporates and not be misused.
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What does this deal mean for India and who will ultimately benefit from it?
In a landmark decision, the Central Information Commission on Monday said corporate entities seeking information should be allowed to use the powerful Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Earlier, RTI could only be used by natural citizens of the country and the CIC word has many wondering if the powerful Act could be used by corporate groups to meet their own ends?
So does RTI run the risk of becoming a new weapon in corporate warfare?
To discuss the issue on India 360 were CEO, Gujarat Ambuja Cement Harsh Neotia and Convener of National Campaign for People's Right to Information Shekhar Singh.
Neotia said he wasn’t worried about RTI being misused by his your business rivals against him. “I don’t think so as looking at the way we are expected to have corporate governance and greater level of transparency expected in public life, I suppose it should not be used by corporates in any other manner except in the general right to know way,” he said.
Shekhar Singh clarified the CIC order was being misread. He explained the Act cannot be misused by anyone and that CIC was only making things easier for corporates. “First of all, you cannot use RTI to stall a proceeding or delay it. You re just asking for information and there’s no requirement for staling anything. If everything is above board, you can still file a case in the court. The order given by CIC is being misunderstood. It’s a very good orders as it recovers (sic) a certain lacuna where people’s applications are being rejected as they are written on an organisation’s letter head. The CIC has just said that just because it’s on a letter head, you cannot reject it,” he explained.
But what if a corporate files an RTI asking government “tell me why he got a contract and I didn’t”? Neotia said such a situation shouldn’t arise if the information is made available after the process is over. “The info should be made vailable only when procedure is completed and not during the pendency of the process. And once the process is completed I am sure government would have applied its mind and done whatever is appropriate. Naturally, it will open up questions wherever there’s a backdoor or a cosy kind of arrangement that has been agreed upon” Neotia, disagrees it won’t stall RTI proceedings,” he said.
But a corporate body is not a citizen and is driven by profit motive and will not ask for RTI to fulfill its duty as a citizen. He may be asking it simply to enhance his profit. Shekhar Singh said it was a fair enough deal. “In fact, even without the CIC order and individual within the organisation could have asked for information. So nothing stops and indivudla from asking for info. Secondly, CIC has extended the order of supreme court that lays down that these corporate bodies can legally be considered citizens for certain role. It gives protection to groups,” he said.
So is RTI good or bad? While Singh said the Act is always good in all circumstances, Neotia sounded a word of caution. “The only worry I have it if RTI is made applicable to proposals then it wouldn’t be a good idea. A lot of us make proposals to government and they may still be pending. RTI should be made applicable to contracts signed between government and corporate bodies,” he said.
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