SC seeks Centre's reply on Jairam Ramesh's plea challenging validity of amended RTI Act

Supreme Court Friday sought response from Centre on a plea by Congress MP Jairam Ramesh who has challenged constitutional validity of Right to Information (Amendment) Act 2019 which gives power to government to prescribe tenure, allowances and salary of information commissioners.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and K M Joseph issued tice to Centre and directed it to file response on plea within four weeks.

Ramesh, a Rajya Sabha MP, has said in his plea that RTI amendment Act, 2019 and Right to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances and Or Terms and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2019 "collectively violate" fundamental right to information of all citizens which is guaranteed under Constitution.

plea, filed through vocate Sunil Fernandes, said that provision of amended Act "alters erstwhile fixed tenure" of five years of central information commissioners (CICs) and state information commissioners (SICs), to a "tenure to be prescribed by central government".

"Section 2(c) of amendment Act grants absolute power to central government to prescribe salaries, allowances, and terms and conditions of service of central information commissioners that in pre-amended Act was fixed to be on par with election commissioners under section 13(5) of RTI Act," plea said.

It said provision of amendment Act "explicitly grants rule making power to government over fixing tenure, salaries and service conditions" of information commissioners.

"Even assuming RTI amendment Act merely delegated rule making power to central government without thwarting independence of information commissioners, its accompanying RTI rules complete destruction of independence of information commissioners....," it said.

"Under this rule, central government is granted with absolute power to decide 'conditions of service' of information commissioners of CIC and SIC t expressly covered under rules," it said while referring to one of Rules.

Referring to amended Act and rules, plea said that "unbridled and uncanalized" discretionary power vested in Centre "jeopardizes independence of information commissioners."

"A perusal of impugned amendments herein would reveal that re is rational nexus with object of Act," plea said while seeking to declare RTI amendment Act, 2019 and its accompanying Rules as ultra-vires to aims and objects of RTI Act, 2005 and Constitution. PTI ABA SA