RTI at 21: only 62.7% of public authorities filed transparency audits with the CIC

Open in the app — quiz, notes, Mistake Vault हिंदी में पढ़ें

The news

New Delhi. The Right to Information Act turned 21 on October 12. A Data Point in The Hindu finds its proactive-disclosure duty widely skipped. Per the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) annual report for 2024-25, only 1,446 of 2,303 registered public authorities, or 62.7%, submitted third-party transparency audit reports, now mandatory. Over half of these scored Grade C or below (80% or less); nearly 37% filed nothing. Compliance has roughly doubled since 2020-21, when 754 filed. The Hindu checked the websites of 94 departments: only 33 carried 2024-25 audit reports, and 26 had no Section 4 information at all. Section 4 requires disclosure “suo motu”, that is, on the authority’s own motion without anyone asking, so that the public needs “minimum resort” to filing applications, which would also cut pendency at Information Commissions.

Prelims nuggets

Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, 2005 lists 17 items, (i) to (xvii), that public authorities must publish suo motu.
The RTI Act came into force on 12 October 2005; the Central Information Commission is constituted under Section 12.
The RTI (Amendment) Act, 2019 lets the Central Government prescribe the tenure, salaries and allowances of Central and State Information Commissioners.
In State of U.P. v. Raj Narain (1975), the Supreme Court read the right to know into Article 19(1)(a).