56% RTI pleas rejected due to disclosure of personal info and exemption given to security agencies: CIC

New Delhi: Disclosure of personal information and exemption given to security and intelligence agencies became the basis for rejection of over 56 per cent of RTI applications in 2019-20 under the transparency law, the annual report of the Central Information Commission (CIC) showed.

More than 13.74 lakh RTI applications were received in 2019-20 across 2,131 public authorities, an all-time high figure. This showed a nominal increase of 0.3 per cent from 2018-19, while the rate of rejection was at an all time low at 4.27 per cent. The rejection of an RTI application is "permissible" only under the exemptions given in Sections 8, 9, 11 and 24 of the act but the report shows a category of "others" used by government departments to discard applications, Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, who presented his analysis of the report, on Wednesday said.

Nayak said a total of 62,123 applications were rejected by public authorities in 2019-20 out of which 38,064 were rejected citing RTI Act exemption clauses, while 24,059 were rejected on reasons clubbed as "others". "According to Section 7(1) of the RTI Act, a public information officer may reject an RTI application only for reasons specified under Section 8 and 9. To this list of Sections 11 and 24 may also be added which also create valid grounds for refusing access to information under specific circumstances. No other reason or excuse is permissible for rejection under the RTI Act," he said. Nayak said public authorities used the "dubious" category of "others" to reject applications which the CIC includes in its Annual Report.