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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
2. Classification of respondents based on their
Occupation.
6
3. Classification of respondents based on their
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