The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) is an Act of the Parliament of India that establishes a practical regime for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities. The Act was passed on June 15, 2005, and came fully into force on October 12, 2005, replacing the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Its origin is rooted in the need to promote transparency and accountability in governance, solving the problem of bureaucratic secrecy previously protected by laws like the Official Secrets Act, 1923. The Supreme Court of India established the right to information as an implied fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) (Freedom of Speech and Expression) of the Constitution, which the Act codifies.
The core mechanism involves any citizen requesting information from a "public authority," which is required to reply within thirty days. If the request concerns the life or liberty of a person, the information must be provided within 48 hours. Every public authority must designate a Public Information Officer (PIO) (Section 5) to handle requests and is also obligated to proactively disclose certain information (Section 4). The Act is supreme, as Section 22 grants it an overriding effect over the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and any other inconsistent law. Related institutions include the Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions (SICs), which oversee implementation and hear appeals.
The Act has undergone significant changes, notably through the Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019, which empowered the Central Government to prescribe the term, salaries, and other terms of service for the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners, replacing the original provision that equated their status to the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. Additionally, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, amended Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act to exempt all personal information from disclosure, removing the earlier public interest test for withholding such information.