A Dent Made in The Right to Information Act, 2005!

A dent made in the Right to Information Act, 2005!

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No one can deny that the Right to Information Act,2005, enacted by the Indian Parliament is a boon to the Indian citizens, who are driven from pillar to post in search of their much wanted information either personal or touching in the interests of general public welfare.

Each State Government has also enacted its own right to information act or rules for effectively implementing the underlying principles of the right to information act, enacted by the Government of India.

Though this act largely benefits the literate people especially those who are more vigilant and have awareness, it facilitates the successful functioning of a democracy like India, by providing its citizens their much sought after information from the Government sector as well as various the public sector organizations. Another salient feature of the act is that it has made provisions for due compliance and response to a petitioner by an organization and on their failure to provide information, the citizen can prefer an appeal to the next higher authority, who has power to punish his subordinate for his dereliction of duty for his failure to provide the information sought by a petitioner within the stipulated time.

But generally in such cases, all is well when everything goes well. But when things go wrong and awry somewhere else, the trouble brews and the entire system gets affected and even the very purpose of enacting legislation is put to acid test.

In Punjab University, the Right to Information Act has been subjected to an ordeal that has been hitherto unknown in the entire history of the Punjab University.

There has been a talk of heavy corruption going on in the premises of the Punjab University, particularly in the student hostel. There has been a rumor prevailing in the University campus that the funds collected from the students staying in the hostel, the fine amount collected from them etc, are not properly accounted to and they go to the coffers of some individual persons.

Finally, a student doing his masters in law in the Punjab University came forward to bell the cat and he has preferred a complaint to the Punjab University under the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005, seeking the particulars of the amount collected from the students staying in the hostels as well as the fine amount collected from them for a particular period. He also has paid the requisite fee of Rs 50/- along with his application, vide Appendix D, Rule 5(1) of the Punjab Right to information Rules, 2005.