Nine years may seem like a short stretch to appraise a landmark law such as the

Right To Information Act, especially in a large and diverse country such as Indi
a.
But the transparency law enacted on October 12, 2005, has managed to leave its i
mprint in this short period, becoming a new weapon in the hands of people.
Not only has the RTI act been used to know more about government, it has also be
come a tool to make public institutions and officials accountable and fight corr
uption.
Otherwise, what can explain government ministers, bureaucrats and judges of the
Supreme Court and high courts making details of their assets public? Or the amou
nt the government has spent on foreign trips of ministers and officials? Or the
UPSC and IITs opening up their selection processes for public scrutiny and ensur
ing fairplay.
Information accessed through the RTI Act has also played a key role in unearthin
g scams such as those in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, th
e 2G spectrum allotment and the allotment of houses in the Adarsh Society in Mum
bai, among others.
The following are some of the key achievements of the RTI Act.:
ASSETS OF SC/HC JUDGES
When RTI activist Subhash Agrawal filed an RTI application in the Supreme Court
asking if all judges had filed details of their assets and liabilities to the Ch
ief Justice of India as mandated by a resolution of a meeting of judges in 1997,
the Supreme Court contended that it was not a public authority under the RTI Ac
t. However, the request seemed to have served its purpose as details of the asse
ts of all judges of the Supreme Court were published on the website of the court
and it is now updated annually. The high courts have followed in the footsteps
of the SC and eight of them have so far published details of the assets and liab
ilities of their judges.
ASSETS OF MINISTERS
In 1964, the Union cabinet adopted a resolution that said every minister would d
eclare details of his/her assets and liabilities and the assets of his/her spous
e and dependents to the PMO after being sworn in as a minister. A copy of this r
esolution was also forwarded to state governments by the then home minister Yash
wantrao Chavan asking them to follow suit. But the resolution had not been taken
seriously.
But in 2008, when the PMO and the cabinet secretariat were asked for the status
of the implementation of the resolution, they forwarded the RTI applications to
each other saying it was the responsibility of the other.
RTI activists, however, did not give up and filed numerous applications until th
e government was forced to publish details. UPA-2 went on to become the first go
vernment where details of all union ministers were published promptly after the
council was sworn in.
ASSETS OF BUREAUCRATS
When RTI activists began filing applications to various civil services cadre con
trolling authorities for details of the assets and liabilities of officials, the
y were returned saying the information sought was personal. They fought hard to
protect the information but had to bow to pressure from civil society and publis

h the assets and liabilities of bureaucrats. It started with the IAS, IPS and In
dian Forest Services and has since been expanded to cover most civil services.
INCOME TAX RETURNS OF POLITICAL PARTIES
In what is seen as a major decision under the RTI Act, the Central Information C
ommission in June 2008 ruled in favour of an appeal by the Association for Democ
ratic Reforms that Income Tax Returns filed by political parties can be disclose
d under the RTI Act. Parties did not challenge this ruling in court and informat
ion that has been obtained since has led to a serious study of the funding of po
litical parties and brought them under pressure.
SCAMS & SCANDALS
While the RTI act has proved to be a potent weapon for ordinary citizens, it has
been more lethal in the hands of those with some understanding of the system. T
he unearthing of scandals and scams such as those involving 2G spectrum allotmen
t, coal blocks allotment, organisation of the Commonwealth Games and allotment o
f apartments in Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai, was greatly helped by informat
ion accessed under the RTI act.