RTI Findings

7/27/2019 RTI Findings

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Results and Findings of a Survey on Right to Information Act, 2005

Project submitted by

Abhinav Dutt, (08)

Keshav Chaturvedi, (19)

Shashwat Rastogi (47) and,

Rizul Jai (55)

Div. A, BBA/LL.B., 2011-2016of Symbiosis Law School, Noida

Symbiosis international University, Pune

In

July-August, 2013

Under the guidance of

Prof. Baseerat Fatima (Course-in-Charge, Administrative Law) and

Dr. Madhuker Sharma (Course-co-faculty)

Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA

Symbiosis International University, Pune


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C E R T I F I C A T E

The project entitled Results and Findings of a Survey on Right to

Information Act, 2005" submitted to the Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA for

Property Law as part of internal assessment is my original work carried out

under the guidance of Prof. Baseerat Fatima (Course-in-Charge) and Dr.

Madhuker Sharma (Course-co-Faculty) from July, 2013 to September, 2013.

The research work has not been submitted elsewhere for award of any

publication or degree.

The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in the work has

been duly acknowledged. I understand that I myself could be held

responsible and accountable for plagiarism, if any, detected later on.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a great pleasure for me to put on records my appreciation and gratitude

towards Dr. C.J. Rawandale, Director for his immense support and

encouragement all through the preparation of this report. I would also like to

thank our faculty Prof. Baseerat Fatima and Dr. Madhuker Sharma (Project

Guides) for their valuable support and suggestions for the improvement and

editing of this project report. Last but not the least, I would like to thank all

the friends and others who directly or indirectly helped us in completing my

project report.


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INDEX

S.No. Topic Page

1. Methodology and Coverage

2. Summary of Findings

3. Annexure-A (The filled questionnaires)

4. Annexure-B (Photographs of respondents)

LIST OF CHARTS

S.No. Topic Page

1. Classification of respondents based on their

Age

5


Occupation.

6


Education

6

4. Response showing whether or not RTI Act,

2005 exists

7

5. Awareness about 30 days Statutory

limitation

8

6. Knowledge of Statutory provision for penalty 9

7. Knowledge that the Applicant need not give

reason for filing an RTI application?

10

8. Knowledge of Provision for appeal 11

9. Whether respondent has filed an RTI

application before?

12

10. Reason for filing application under RTI Act 13


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Methodology and Coverage

Collection of Primary Data:

Fifity (50) respondents were individually interviewed, their agespanning from 18 to 62 years.

Seven (7) of them had no knowledge about the existence of the Act. Two (2) Senior citizens were interviewed too. One of them had filed an

RTI application in the RTO office at New Delhi.

A whopping forty three (43) number of respondents were aware of theexistence of the Act, but were largely in ignorance with the legal

provisions of the Act.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

RTI AND THE PUBLIC

1)Analysis of Respondentsa) Classification based on Age

Chart 1: Classification of respondents based on their Age.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

24 and below

25-31

32-38

39-45

46 and above

24 and below 25-31 32-38 39-45 46 and above

No. of Respondents 14 10 12 12 2

Classification of Respondents based on Age

(in years)


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b)Classification based on Occupation

Chart 2: Classification of respondents based on their Occupation.

c) Classification based on Education

Chart 3: Classification of respondents based on their Education.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Student

Govt. Employee

Professional

Business

Retired

Unemployed

Student Govt.Employee Professional Business Retired Unemployed

Occupation 16 8 12 5 2 7

Classification of Respondents based on their

Occupation

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Primary

Matric

Graduation

Post Graduation

Primary Matric Graduation Post Graduation

Education 3 15 19 13

Classification of Respondents based on their

Education


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2)Whether RTI, 2005 exists? (Stage I Analysis)7 out of 50 respondents did not know that the Right to Information

Act, 2005 gave them the right to seek information from

Government Authorities.

Chart 4: Response showing whether or not RTI Act, 2005 exists.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Did not Know

Did Know

Did not Know Did Know

Stage 1 7 43

Stage 1


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3)Awareness about legal Provisions (Stage II Analysis)a) Do you know that the office is bound to reply you application within

thirty (30) days?

Out of the filtered forty three (43) respondents, twenty (20) people

were aware of the fact that the public Authority was under a

statutory duty to respond to an application within thirty (30) days.

Out of these twenty (20), sixteen (16) were graduates and 4 were

not.

The remaining twenty three (23) people were not aware of this

statutory limitation out of which 7 were graduates and sixteen (16)

were not.

Chart 5: Awareness about 30 days Statutory limitation.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Yes

No

Yes No

Graduate 16 7

Non-Graduate 4 16

Awareness about 30 Day Limitation Period


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b)Do you know that penalty may be imposed against the officer if theinformation is not provided to you within 30 days of receiving your

application?

As expected, the results as regards this question were no different

from the previous one. The numbers are represented statistically

below.

Chart 6: Knowledge of the Statutory Provision of Penalty if 30 Day

Deadline exceeded

c) Do you know that you need not to give reason for seekinginformation under the Act?

This question, not surprisingly, produced different results. Out of

the forty three (43) respondents, twenty five (25) replied in the

affirmative and the rest eighteen (18) replied in the negative. Out

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Yes

No

Yes No

Graduate 16 7

Non-Graduate 4 16

Knowledge of the Statutory Provision ofPenalty if 30 Day Deadline exceeded


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of the lot of twenty five (25) people who replied in the affirmative,

twenty (20) were graduates and five (5) were not. And out of the

eighteen (18) people who replied in the negative, six (6) were

graduates and the remaining twelve (12) were not. The results are

shown below:

Chart 7: Knowledge that the Applicant need not give reason for

filing an RTI application.

d)Do you know the appeal procedure laid down under the Act?This question was surprisingly easy for the respondents to answer.

Out of the forty three (43) respondents, as many as thirty (30) of

them answered in the positive while a miniscule thirteen (13)

answered in the negative. Out of the ones who answered positively,

all eleven (11) non-graduates (under-graduates) knew the

existence of the provision of appeal. The results are illustrated as

under:

0 5 10 15 20 25

No

Yes

No Yes

Graduate 12 5

Non Graduate 6 20

That the Applicant need not give reason for

filing an RTI application


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Chart 8: Knowledge of Provision of Appeal

e) Have you ever filed an application under the R.T.I. Act, 2005?This was the question which, not surprisingly, attracted the least

number of positive responses. As few as six (6) respondents

answered in the affirmative and the rest thirty seven (37) answered

in the negative. The results are shown below:

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Yes

No

Yes No

Graduate 19 13

Non Graduate 11 0

Knowledge of Provision for Appeal


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Chart 9: Whether respondent has filed an RTI application before?

4)Personal Experience (Stage III Analysis)a) What was the reason for your filing the said application?

Not surprisingly, of the six (6) respondents who cleared Stage II,

two (2) of them had filed for a social cause and the remaining four

(4) filed for their personal cause. Of the former category, both the

applicants were below the age of twenty five (25) years and of the

latter category, three (3) were above the age of 25 years and one

(1) was below 25 years of age. The results are shown below:

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Yes

No

Yes No

Whether filed RTI ? 6 37

Whether filed RTI ?


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Chart 10: Reason for filing application under RTI Act.

b)Did you receive the information within 30 days?It was observed that NO RESPONDENT was able to receive the

information he sought within the statutory limit of thirty (30) days.

This reflects the glim reality of the effectiveness of the Right to

Information Act, 2005.

c) Did you receive all the information/s sought by you?(and rest of thequestions discussed)

It was observed that NONE of the respondents had received

satisfactory information about their query/(ies). It was not also

noted the subsequent question involving filing an appeal against the

P.I.O. in the first appellate authority and an opinion of the

respondent as to whether RTI ACT, 2005 would help in bringing

transparency, the responses were majorly towards the negative. In

fact, it would not be wrong to say that all the applicants were of the

opinion that the Act would hardly make any difference as regards

transparency. The opinions would assume political flavor because of

which their exact answers cannot be disclosed by the researcher.

Social Cause Personal Cause

Above 25 yrs. 0 3

Below 25 yrs. 2 1

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

33.5

4

4.5

No.

ofRespondents

Reason for filing Application under RTI

Documents

RTI Findings