Public Authority

Who is a Public Authority?

Section 2(h) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 defines a ''Public authority'' as "any authority or body or institution of self government established or constituted by or under the Constitution, or by any other law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature; or by notification issued or order made by the Central Government or a State Government." Governmental and Non-Governmental bodies which are owned, controlled or substantially financed by the Central Government, or State Government also fall within the definition of public authority.

The RTI ACT 2005, empowers citizens with the right to access information under the control of public authorities. Accordingly, the RTI Act creates a legal Framework to make this right by defining public authorities, enabling citizens to seek information from them. It also imposes penalties on officials of public authorities for failing to disclose the information as defined in Section 2(f).

Meaning of public authority in case laws

In Shivanna Naik V.  Bangalore University, Karnataka university was deemed to be a public authority under Article 12 of the Constitution. Other cases have held co-operative societies as public authorities only in instances where the society is substantially financed directly or indirectly by the State Government.

An institution run by the registered society and providing education to the society, which owns a permanent building and receives grants-in-aid from the state falls under the definition of the "Public authority." Additionally, in Bihar Public Commission V. State Of Bihar, the Bihar public service commission was held to be a public authority.

List of Public authorities

Under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, public authorities include:

1. Central Government Ministries and Departments.
2. State Government Departments.
3. Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
4. Autonomous Bodies (e.g., universities, councils).
5. Local Authorities (e.g., municipalities, panchayats).
6. Judicial and quasi-judicial bodies.
7. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that receive substantial funding from the government.

Every public authority is required to appoint a Public Information Officer (PIO) to handle RTI requests.

REGISTRATION OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY

All entities likely to be qualified as a PA must be registered with the Central Information Commission by the concerned ministries/ departments. Wherever an entity are due to be registered as PAs, and any information/complain of this nature is received, the CIC may direct the concerned ministry / department to register such entities as a PA in CIC software.

The CIC takes a proactive role and directs all concern ministries / departments to follow to uniform pattern while registering such type of PAs. However, the right for inclusion, merger, bifurcation and deletion of any PA vests with the controlling ministries/  departments.

Obligations of Public Authorities:

As defined in the RTI ACT 2005, Section 4(1) contains a list of the following obligations of public authorities:

1. Maintenance of records: Every public authority is required to maintain all its records duly cataloged and indexed. In order to facilitate access to its records, the public authority shall ensure that all the records that are appropriate for computerisation are computerized and connected through a network across the country on various systems, within a reasonable time frame and according to resource availability.

2. Publication of certain matters: Every public authority is required to publish the following particulars within 120 days of the enactment of the Act. These include:

• Particulars of its organisations, functions, and duties;
• Powers and duties of its officers and employees;
• Procedure followed in the decision-making process, including channels of supervision and accountability;
• Employee directory of such public authority
• Monthly salary given to employees and officers
• Details of budget allocated to its agencies
• Details regarding information held in electronic form
• Particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information
• Names  and designations of the Public Information Officers etc.
• Every public authority shall provide reasons for its judicial or administrative decisions to those affected by it.

Primary Role of Public Authority:

Under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, public authorities play a crucial role:

1. Providing Information:

Authorities are expected to respond to RTI requests within a stipulated time frame (typically 30 days). They are mandated to provide complete and accurate information, apart from assisting applicants by directing the query to the appropriate authority.

2. Designating Public Information Officers

Section 5(1) of the RTI ACT requires a public authority to designate "as many" officers as central public information officer or the state public information ,as the case may be, in all administrative units and offices it may be necessary to provide information to persons requesting for the same. They were to be designated within 100 days of enactment of the act. https://wblc.gov.in/sites/default/files/Role%20of%20PIO.pdf

3. Maintaining Records

Public Authorities must maintain accurate and updated date records of information. They must also ensure that such records must be accessible when sought.

4. Ensuring Transparency: Authorities to ensure voluntary and Suo-moto disclosure of several categories of information. Ensure transparency in decision-making.

5. Maintaining Confidentiality: this includes the protection of sensitive information mentioned under Section 8(1), ensuring its non-disclosure and confidentiality.

SUO MOTU DISCLOSURE

1. Every public authority must provide as much information Suo motu to the public via various reasonable means of communication. This is to ensure that citizens need to minimally resort to the use of the Act to obtain information. The Internet being one of the most effective means of communications, the information may be posted on the website.

2. Section 4(1)(b) of the Act, in particular, requires every public authority to publish following sixteen categories of information:

• (a)the parliament of its organization, functions and duties;
• (b)the powers and duties of its officers and employees;
• (c)the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability;
• (d)the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions;
• (e)the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions;
• (f)a statement of the categories of document that are held by it or under its control;
• the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof;
• (g)a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two more persons constituted as part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public;
• (h)directory of its officers and employees;
• (i)the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations;
• (j)the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposes expenditures and reports on disbursements made;
• (k)the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes;
• (l)particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorizations granted by it;
• (m)details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic from;
• (n)the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if reduced in an electronic from;
• (o)the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers;

3. Besides the above categories of information, the Government may prescribe other categories of information to be published by any public authority. It is to be noted that publication of the information as referred to above is not optional, but rather a statutory requirement which every public authority is bound to meet under Section 4(1)(b).

4. The public authority is obliged to update the aforementioned categories of information annually. It is advisable that, as far as possible, the information should be updated periodically as and when new developments occur. Particularly, in case of online publication, the information should be maintained and updated timely.

Designation of Public Information Officers

Section 5(1) requires public authorities to appoint Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs) and State Public Information Officers (SPIOs) within 100 days of the Act’s commencement. Such officers are required by the Act to furnish the requested information.

Section 5(2) establishes a Central Assistant Public Information Officer or a State Assistant Public Information Officer at each sub-divisional or other sub-district levels. Such officials shall accept applications for information or appeals under the Act and send them to the CPIO/SPIO or the senior officer indicated in Section 19(1), the Central Information Commission, or the State Information Commission, as applicable.

Responsibilities and functions of Public information officers

Section 5(3) of the RTI Act, 2005 assigns CPIOs and SPIOs the following responsibilities: 1. to respond to requests for information from the person requesting information. 2. to offer appropriate help to the individual requesting information.

Penalties

The CIC/SIC has the authority to impose sanctions on the CPIO/SPIO for purposeful violations of the Act when resolving a complaint or an appeal under the Act. Before any decision regarding the application of a penalty is made, the CPIO/SPIO in question must be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard. The burden of proving that he behaved reasonably and diligently rests solely on the concerned CPIO/SPIO.

A penalty is imposed at the rate of Rs. 250 per day till the application is received or information is furnished. However, the total amount of the penalty shall not exceed Rs. 25,000. Section 20(1) of the Act lists several grounds for which penalties maybe imposed:

• unreasonable refusal to receive an application for information
• information not provided within the time period specified in Section 7(1)
• mala fide rejecting of the information request
• knowingly provided false, incomplete, or misleading information
• the applicant’s requested information was destroyed
• obstruction in any way in providing the information

Role of First Appellate Authority (FAA)

It is the responsibility of PIO of a public authority to supply correct and complete information within the specified time to any person seeking information under RTI act 2005. The failure to do so, on certain counts, allows citizens to appeal to the First Appellate Authority. The act contains provision to appeal to tide over such a situation. The 1st appeal is heard within public authority by an officer designated as the First Appellate Authority by the concerned public authority.

Statistical Overview of Public Authorities

Annual report of Central Information Commission ( 2022-2023)

1.Ministry wise list of authority who have have not submitted annual return. Retrieved from pg 251. https://cic.gov.in/sites/default/files/Reports/AR2021-22E.pdf

Annual report of CIC (2022-2023)

Disposal of RTI requests by Public Authorities from 2005 to 2022. Retrieved from https://cic.gov.in/sites/default/files/Reports/AR2021-22E.pdf

STATE WISE ANNUAL REPORT (2022-2023);

HARYANA- https://cicharyana.gov.in/

UTTAR PRADESH - https://upic.gov.in/

PUNJAB -https://infocommpunjab.com

UTTARAKHAND

https://uic.uk.gov.in/index/index.php

Rajasthan-

https://ric.rajasthan.gov.in/