Relevance: GS-2: Important Aspects of Governance, Transparency, and Accountability

Key Phrases: whistle-blowers, Right to Information Act, Timely investigation, Mandatory Disclosure, State Information Commission, Centre for Law and Democracy, RTI activists, women whistle-blowers, Whistle Blowers Protection Act.

Why in News?

• The Centre for Law and Democracy classifies the Right to information act among the top five laws in the world.
• The law has been used extensively by a cross-section of citizens including activists, lawyers, bureaucrats, researchers, journalists, and most importantly, ordinary folk.
• They all have been asking simple questions, pursuing answers on the use of public funds, and unearthing corruption of all kinds from the Panchayat level to Parliament.
• The widespread understanding and use of the RTI is a shining example of participatory democracy despite our current realities.

The killing of activists:

• Since the Act's implementation, 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 the law.
• The State ranks first in the number of deaths of RTI users. As many as 20 RTI users have lost their lives since 2010 in different districts across Bihar.
• In 2018, six RTI users were killed for seeking information related to the functioning of public programs and institutions.

Need for a new framework:

• The denial by the government of the existence of casualties emanating from its acts of omission and commission has prompted civil society to maintain lists of persons who lost their lives on account of demonetization, COVID-19, and now RTI so that the lives of the people, particularly the poor, are not remembered merely as numbers and there is a need to move beyond maintaining a count.
• There is a 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 attempt to pursue issues of public interest. Otherwise, words in the RTI legislation will ring hollow.
• There can be multiple components to such a framework, and it is time for State governments to take the lead without waiting for the Central government to set an example.
• These components include:
• Timely investigation:
  • State governments must direct law-enforcement agencies to expeditiously and in a time-bound manner complete investigations in all cases where RTI users are harassed.
  • This must include making proactive efforts to provide adequate compensation to the victim’s family.
• Mandatory Disclosure:
  • Available evidence clearly shows that the information requested by the murdered RTI users was information that should have been mandatorily disclosed in the public domain under Section 4 of the RTI Act.
  • Therefore, the State governments must take immediate efforts to institutionalize proactive disclosure of actionable information.
  • Rajasthan has taken the lead in active disclosure. Its Jan Soochna portal and Karnataka’s Mahiti Kanaja are outstanding examples of practical ways of mandatory disclosure.
• Publicize all the questions raised and the answers given:
  • In all cases of threats, attacks, or killings 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.

Effective legislation:

• There is an urgent need to enact effective legislation to protect whistle-blowers.
• In 2016, a Supreme Court bench came down heavily on the Union government for its reluctance to notify the Whistle Blowers Protection Act of 2014, but unfortunately to no avail.
• The Supreme Court observed that there was an “absolute vacuum” that could not be allowed to go on.
• The Central government was called upon to decide on a specific time frame to establish an administrative set-up to protect whistle-blowers.
• The court recognized that the concept of a whistle-blower is a global phenomenon and has become a reality.
• Eight years have passed, and the proposed Act has not been notified.

Conclusion:

• The brutal murders of RTI activists have not only raised an urgent question of the protection of people engaging with the system to seek accountability, but also of the state’s responsibility to provide legal assistance, time bound grievance redressal, compensation, and dignified access to justice to the families of those killed.
• State governments, such as those of Bihar and Maharashtra, which have recorded the highest number of murders of RTI activists, must introduce their mechanisms for protecting whistle-blowers by enacting at least a State-level whistle-blower protection law.
• Ignoring the plight of RTI users facing death for keeping our democracy alive is a threat to democracy itself.
• The government should now need to pass the Whistle-blowers Act and develop a solid regulatory regime to safeguard whistle-blowers to sustain the balance.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Ignoring that Right to Information users face challenges in keeping democracy alive is a threat to democracy itself. Discuss in light of challenges faced by whistle-blowers in India and suggest remedial measures.