The Central Bureau of Investigation, probing January 2010 murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty, on Friday conducted searches at the offices of IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, a company which was recently in news over its links with Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari.
The Left has said the amendments will make the RTI useless.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal committed a gaffe at his rally in Ahmedabad on Sunday when he paid homage to four RTI activists, of whom three happen to be alive.
The Bill will be discussed in the next session of Parliament.
Amit Jethwa's father Bhiku Jethwa had accused Solanki for the murder, as he claimed that his son had recently filed an RTI application and a public interest litigation in the Gujarat High Court against Solanki. Jethwa had filed a petition in the high court, which alleged that mining activities were being carried out in the Una and Kodinar areas of Saurashtra with the support of Junagadh BJP MP Solanki and his relatives.
The Central Information Commission has directed the PMO to answer the question within 15 days.
The commission suggested that a comprehensive plan should be devised to handle the issue of missing files which has become a "stumbling block" in implementing the RTI act.
'Modi knows the people here are opposed to this project, but he is using the might of government to push this port down our throats.'
The priority of Central Information Commission will be to check vexatious petitions and mounting backlog of cases, its new chief Vijai Sharma said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Three persons, including a lawyer, have been arrested in connection with the murder of RTI activist and whistle-blower Satish Shetty at Talegaon near Pune. A court on Saturday remanded the trio, which was arrested late on Friday night, to ten days police custody till January 25. Vijay Dabhade, the lawyer, and his accomplices Pramod Waghmare and Parshuram Telegu, who were arrested for giving a contract to kill Shetty, were produced before a court at Wadgaon Maval.
'The exemption given by the government to the CBI appears to be have been guided by its desire to stop exposure of corruption which goes against the preamble of the RTI Act which aims to curb corruption,' says former Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
Deputy leader of the opposition in Parliament Gopinath Munde told rediff.com he would seek the help of Right to Information Act to find out who was responsible for according the Padma Bhushan Award to non resident Indian hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal.
The CIC slapped the fine on the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India's CEO Sudhir Mukund Galande while dismissing his argument that he was acting as a 'facilitator' to the RTI applicant and that he was 'not having direct access or control' over the information.
The BJP is hopeful that the issue will come in handy in its efforts to gain political traction in the Dravidian territory during the Lok Sabha polls, more so as it involves neighbouring Sri Lanka whose treatment of its own Tamilian citizens and Tamil Nadu fishermen has long been a charged political issue in the state.
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioners in the court, said at least 30 shell companies purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 143 crore.
'Since the last ten days our own people were spreading canards and propaganada against me and my family.' 'I was upset by this behaviour and I decided that I should not contest this Lok Sabha election.'
Central Information Commission has held that funding from RBI makes an institution is adequate to make it accountable under RTI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has approached the Delhi high court claiming protection from disclosure of information held by it on allegations of corruption under the Right to Information Act.
86.69 per cent of available stock of currency notes is being taken away from circulation and less than one-fourth of these are being replenished by newly printed Rs 2,000 notes
The police have set up five teams to investigate the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood, a senior officer said on Wednesday, but the opposition Congress has demanded that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. "We have constituted five teams to probe the murder," said newly-appointed Senior Superintendent of Police, Bhopal, Yogesh Choudhry. Shehla was found shot dead inside her car in front of her house in the Koh-e-Fiza locality on Tuesday.
A full bench of the Central Information Commission on Monday passed a historic judgment, stating that political parties would under the ambit of the Right to Information Act). While the CIC verdict was made about a case connected to the Communist Party of India, fresh complaints may be filed against all other parties before the CIC to secure a similar verdict and put them under the ambit of the RTI.
Noting that agreements entered into by banking enterprises with its customers were matters of 'commercial confidence', the Central Information Commission has ruled out disclosure of information pertaining to bank account details under the Right to Information Act.
The bill which seeks to keep political parties out of the ambit of the transparency law will be sent to a standing committee for wider consultations, government informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
A Right to Information activist who was in the forefront in exposing corruption in Public Distribution System, foodgrain and fuel distribution in the Marathwada region has been found dead in Nanded.
All political parties in India except the Communist Party of India have declined to provide information through a Right To Information application on political donations.
Rulers in New Delhi and their political aides in sensitive states like Tamil Nadu have to be doubly careful not to provoke a situation whose consequences may be much more than visible now to the naked eye, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Twenty Indian soldiers posted in border areas of the country, most of them in Jammu and Kashmir, have gone missing from 1996 to 2010, according to an RTI reply.
The single judge had set aside the Central Information Commission's direction holding that judges have to disclose such information.
The chief minister noted that all complaints received at the call centre will be passed on to the concerned department officials.
Former Chief Justice of India, Justice Rajendra Babu said on Tuesday that certain areas, such as confidential and sensitive information gathered by the CJI on the appointment of judges, should be kept outside the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday registered a case in connection with the sensational 2010 killing of RTI Amit Jethwa outside the Gujarat high court in which a state Bharatiya Janata Party MP is a suspect.
Right To Information activist Anil Galgali has asked Anna Hazare to prevail upon Maharashtra Government to cancel the new RTI rules in the state.
Did the Indian government guarantee Dow Chemicals, the parent company of Union Carbide, that it will not be held liable for the Bhopal gas tragedy?
The only silver lining for the Supreme Court in the Delhi High Court verdict holding that the Chief Justice of India's office comes within the purview of RTI Act was that it said notes, jottings and draft judgements would not fall within the umbrella of the transparency law.
Mired in controversies, the Prime Minister's Office has declined to disclose information related to 2G spectrum allocation issue citing breach of parliamentary privilege.
In a landmark verdict against the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday held that the office of the Chief Justice of India comes within the ambit of the Right to Information law, saying judicial independence is not a judge's privilege but a responsibility cast upon him.
The Supreme Court has said citizens have a right to invoke the Right To Information Act to fight corruption and bring in transparency and accountability in the administration.
In a move that may leave the police and Maharashtra government red-faced, an accused in the July 2006 Mumbai train blasts case has come up with information through RTI to show that some prosecution witnesses were lying, and some of them were facing criminal cases themselves.
The data provided by the SBI shows that highest purchase of electoral bonds for the year 2019 was reported from Mumbai where the bonds worth Rs 495.6 crore were sold.
About 82 per cent of the total income from unknown sources declared by national political parties in 2022-23 came from electoral bonds, according to a poll rights body.
