WHISTLEBLOWERS
The centre for law and democracy classifies it among the top five laws in the world. The RTI empowers us to participate in the policy-making process, by providing access to information relating to the functioning of all public authorities.
NEED TO PROTECT WHISTLEBLOWERS
Ordinary citizens have used the law to make public authorities accountable and transparent in their functioning. The law has been used by a cross-section of a citizen including activists, lawyers, bureaucrats, researchers, journalists, and ordinary folk.
They all have been asking simple questions and pursuing answers on the use of the public funds, and unearthing corruption of all kinds from the panchayats level right up to the parliament.
ACTIVISTS ARE IN DANGER
Since the implementation of the act, some 100 RTI activists across the country have been killed and several are harassed daily. Bihar is turning out to be one of the most dangerous states for RTI activists despite being one of the earliest promoters of law.
As many as 20 RTI users have lost their lives since 2010 in different districts across Bihar. The brutal murders have not only raised an urgent question of the protection of the people engaging with the system to seek accountability but also state responsibility to provide legal assistance, time-bound grievance redressal, compensation and dignified access to justice to families of those killed.
A NEW FRAMEWORK
We need to move beyond maintaining a count. we need to advocate for and move toward creating a socio-legal system that recognizes RTI users under attack as human rights defenders and builds a framework that facilitates and protects them in their attempts to pursue issues of public interest.
So these steps can be taken in this regard
- State governments must direct law enforcement agencies to expeditiously and in a time-bound manner complete investigation in all cases where RTI users are harassed. This must include making proactive efforts to provide adequate compensation to the victim’s family.
- State government must take immediate efforts to institutionalize proactive disclosure of actionable information. Rajasthan has taken the lead in active disclosure, its Jan Suchana portal subsequently followed by Karnataka’s Mahiti Kanaja is an outstanding example of practical ways of mandatory disclosure.
- In all cases of threats, attacks or killing of RTI users, the state Information commission must immediately direct the relevant public authorities to disclose and publicize all the questions raised and the answers given to the user. Giving wide publicity to such information may potentially act as a deterrent against attacks on RTI users, as perpetrators get the message that rather than covering up the matter, any attack would invite even greater public scrutiny.
INSTANCES
There is an urgent need to enact effective legislation to protect whistleblowers. In 2016, a supreme court bench of justice T.S Thakur and Justice A.K.
Sikri came down heavily on the Union government for its reluctance to notify the whistleblower protection Act of 2014,but unfortunately to no avail
The Central government was called upon to decide on a specific time frame to establish an administrative set-up to protect whistleblowers. The court recognized that the concept of the whistleblower is a global phenomenon, it cannot be wished away.
Given this reality, state governments, such as those of Bihar and Maharashtra, which have recorded the highest number of murders of RTI activists, must introduce their mechanism for protecting whistleblowers by enacting at least a state-level whistleblower protection law.
