On 15th June 2005, a historic step was taken towards transparency and open governance in India. The Parliament passed the Right to Information Act, of 2005 (RTI Act).
Section 6(1) of the Act states that an application requesting information can be submitted “in writing or electronic form”. On 20th March 2023, the Supreme Court of India passed an order in a petition filed by Pravasi Legal Cell (Among other organisations).
This order clarified that since the RTI Act says “electronic form”, every High Court, District Court, State Government and Union Territory Administrations must make an Online Web Portal for citizens to file RTI Request Applications with the Public Information Officers and their First Appellate Authorities.
However, 10 out of 36 authorities have not complied with this order. Even the compliance by the states is not equal. Faulty Payment gateways, unreasonable transaction fees, Password reset errors and Lack of appeal options plague these websites. The Interactive map hyperlinks all the RTI websites in one place and shows you the current action taken by the Nagrik Project to rectify the situation. (I sent them a letter).
Success Stories
Success Report: Arunachal Pradesh