Right to Information Act, 2005
Legal Framework and Constitutional Basis
The Right to Information Act, 2005, enacted on October 12, 2005, provides citizens the right to access information held by public authorities. The RTI Act operationalises the constitutional right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a), which the Supreme Court has held includes the right to receive information (both in Bennett Coleman v. Union of India, 1972, and subsequently). The RTI Act applies to all "public authorities" — defined broadly to include all bodies constituted or substantially financed by the government. It establishes a two-tier information commission system: State Information Commissions (SICs) at the state level, and the Central Information Commission (CIC) at the apex level.
- RTI Act enacted: June 15, 2005 (assented to); came into force: October 12, 2005.
- Section 8: Lists classes of information exempt from disclosure — national security, sovereignty, Cabinet notes, fiduciary relationships, personal information (Section 8(1)(j)), etc.
- Section 8(1)(j) (pre-DPDP): Exempted information relating to personal privacy "which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy" — but allowed disclosure if public interest demanded it (the override clause).
- Section 8(1)(j) (post-DPDP, 2023): Amended by DPDP Act Section 44(3) to read: "information which relates to personal information" — removing the public interest override entirely, converting a proportionality test to an absolute bar.
- Section 4: Suo motu disclosure — public authorities must proactively publish 17 categories of information without any RTI application; this is the RTI Act's transparency cornerstone.
● Tracked since February 28, 2026 · last seen August 07, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes