The Lokayukta police have summoned Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for questioning in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment case on November 6, official sources said on Monday.
Rejecting the opposition's charge that the bill will weaken the act, the government said it was fully committed to transparency and autonomy of the institution.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said the petitions raise three separate issues and hence, the need to hear them separately.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday questioned the justification behind reducing and waiving police protection charges levied during cricket matches in Maharashtra with a retrospective effect from the year 2011, and said "something is amiss".
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti noted that a separate bench of the apex court had junked the plea filed by AAP leader Sanjay Singh on April 8 in the same case, who is a co-accused in the case.
The Association of Democratic Reforms, voluntary organisation whose efforts made Central Information Commission bring six national parties under the umbrella of the RTI Act, had shot RTI applications to 45 recognised political parties of which only four have responded so far, a statement from ADR said.
The unexplained deaths of RTI activists and whistleblowers prove that the RTI Act has threatened many powerful, unscrupulous powers that be.
The Madhya Pradesh Special Police Establishment (also known as Lokayukta) is exempted under Section 24 of the RTI Act as per directions of the state government, it said in a reply to an RTI query.
Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has written to Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia about his recent remarks that irrelevant RTI queries hampered the work of judiciary, saying this may "dampen the RTI journey" of the country.
The proposed rules, aimed at replacing RTI rules of 2012, have been placed by the department of personnel and training on its website for comments from public.
Shiv Sena workers on Friday assaulted and blackened the face of an RTI activist at Latur in Marathwada region, after he "exposed" an illegal construction case.
Activist Raman Sharma had filed a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, seeking to know from the government the number of people who had received the first dose of vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin -- but did not take the second within the stipulated time period.
He drew the roadmap of India's economic reform, unshackled it from the licence raj and pulled it back from the brink when even its gold reserve was pledged.
Observing that the RTI Act is an effective device for making governance transparent, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement favouring a "critical look" at the law and said his party was opposed to any such move. Advani said that only some time back, the government had showered praise on the RTI Act, saying it had brought transparency.
Setting a new bench mark in transparency in politics, the Central Information Commission has held that political parties are answerable under the Right to Information Act.
The RTI reply also stated that the interception of communication was being carried out in accordance with the Telegraph Act of 1885 and Telegraph (Amendment) Rule of 2007, a clause that finds a mention in the clarification issued by the government over the December 20 order.
The commission also suggested that the government publish the cabinet decisions on its official website.
RTI crusader Arvind Kejriwal, a key figure in Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption, on Tuesday accused the government of keeping the Central Bureau of Investigation out of the Right to Information Act's ambit so that it can arm-twist its political opponents. "The RTI Act clearly says that only security and intelligence related agencies can be taken out of RTI Act. CBI is neither a security agency nor an intelligence agency," he said.
Commission says that though Reliance Infra is a private company, it provides 'essential service' and hence comes within the ambit of the RTI Act.
Stay orders keep law out of citizen access even years after CIC rulings on opening market institutions to scrutiny
Delhi Police on Thursday arrested another person in connection with the city's biggest-ever drug haul with investigators finding that the main accused had alleged links with leaders of a national political party, officials said.
While sitting MPs are entitled to use the railways' first class air-conditioned or executive class for free, their spouses too can avail free travel under certain conditions.
Beleaguered Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's political credibility will be tested by the outcome of the three by-elections. And cries that he must resign will become shriller if the Congress loses them.
The government has ruled out amending the RTI Act to give immunity to political parties from providing information after the recent CIC's landmark order brought them under the ambit of the transparency law.
The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government, like its United Progressive Alliance predecessor, seems to be failing on suo motu disclosures under the Right to Information Act.
At a time when Sushma Swaraj is under fierce opposition attack for "helping" Lalit Modi obtain United Kingdom travel documents, her external affairs ministry has refused to provide any information about the passport issue involving the scandal-tainted former Indian Premier League boss.
Terming the charges against him a "BJP conspiracy", Siddaramaiah said he would wage a legal fight.
The Supreme Court had observed that issues of national economic interest; disclosure of information regarding currency or exchange rates/interest rates/ taxes; regulation or supervision of banking, insurance and other financial institutions; proposals for expenditure or borrowing, and foreign investments, could all, in some cases, harm the national economy, especially if released prematurely.
'All the big things happening today in economic development have their beginning in Dr Manmohan Singh's ideas.'
A senior police official, however, said Monday the charges against the 85-year-old in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case have not been dropped.
The Karnataka CM is facing allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife Parvathi B M by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
'The prime minister has taken pre-emptive action by not appointing a Chief Information Commissioner at all to render it dysfunctional.'
'The bureaucracy is also hardening its stand and in most cases has realised that the commissioners are not really committed to transparency,' says former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
"Every Indian deserves to know the truth and the BJP wants to hide the truth. The BJP believes the truth must be hidden from the people and they must not question people in power. The changes proposed to the RTI will make it a useless Act," the Congress president said on Twitter.
Taking a cue from the prevailing public mood against the political class, the Congress leadership -- Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi -- are said to have clinched the argument in favour of deferring the amendment to the Right to Information Act which seeks to keep political parties out of the ambit of the transparency law.
Air India had stopped the practice of issuing tickets on credit to government agencies for the travel of their officials in December last year because of accruing pending bills.
'Whoever is doing it (threats to airlines), they are actually carrying out a recce.' 'This is the manner in which terrorists strike.'
The National Election Watch has appealed to all the Members of Parliament from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha not to support a proposed amendment to the Right To Information Act.
Political parties should not be brought under the ambit of the Right to Information Act by terming them 'public authorities', as this would not only hamper their smooth working but help political rivals to file pleas with malicious intention to seek information, the government told the Supreme Court on Monday.
No decision has been taken yet by the government on giving immunity to political parties from providing information under the Right to Information Act as the six-week deadline by the Central Information Commission ends on Monday.
