Results and Findings of a Survey on Right to Information Act, 2005 Project submitted by Abhinav Dutt, (08) Keshav Chaturvedi,

(19) Shashwat Rastogi (47) and, Rizul Jai (55) Div. A, BBA/LL.B., 2011-2016of Symbiosis Law School, Noida Symbiosis international University, Pune

In July-August, 2013 Under the guidance of Prof. Baseerat Fatima (Course-in-Charge, Administrative Law) and Dr. Madhuker Sharma (Course-co-faculty) Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA Symbiosis International University, Pune
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CERTIFICATE

The project entitled Results and Findings of a Survey on Right to Information Act, 2005" submitted to the Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA for Property Law as part of internal assessment is my original work carried out under the guidance of Prof. Baseerat Fatima (Course-in-Charge) and Dr. Madhuker Sharma (Course-co-Faculty) from July, 2013 to September, 2013. The research work has not been submitted elsewhere for award of any publication or degree. The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in the work has been duly acknowledged. I understand that I myself could be held responsible and accountable for plagiarism, if any, detected later on.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a great pleasure for me to put on records my appreciation and gratitude towards Dr. C.J. Rawandale, Director for his immense support and encouragement all through the preparation of this report. I would also like to thank our faculty Prof. Baseerat Fatima and Dr. Madhuker Sharma (Project Guides) for their valuable support and suggestions for the improvement and editing of this project report. Last but not the least, I would like to thank all the friends and others who directly or indirectly helped us in completing my project report.

INDEX
S.No. 1. 2. 3. 4. Topic Methodology and Coverage Summary of Findings Annexure-A (The filled questionnaires) Annexure-B (Photographs of respondents) Page

LIST OF CHARTS
S.No.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Age Classification of respondents based on their Occupation. Classification of respondents based on their Education Response showing whether or not RTI Act, 2005 exists Awareness about 30 days Statutory limitation Knowledge of Statutory provision for penalty Knowledge that the Applicant need not give reason for filing an RTI application? Knowledge of Provision for appeal Whether respondent has filed an RTI application before? Reason for filing application under RTI Act 13 11 12 9 10 8 7 6 6

Topic
Classification of respondents based on their

Page
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Methodology and Coverage

Collection of Primary Data: Fifity (50) respondents were individually interviewed, their age spanning from 18 to 62 years. Seven (7) of them had no knowledge about the existence of the Act. Two (2) Senior citizens were interviewed too. One of them had filed an RTI application in the RTO office at New Delhi. A whopping forty three (43) number of respondents were aware of the existence of the Act, but were largely in ignorance with the legal provisions of the Act.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
RTI AND THE PUBLIC
1) Analysis of Respondents a) Classification based on Age

Classification of Respondents based on Age (in years)

46 and above 39-45 32-38 25-31 24 and below 0 2 4 25-31 10 6 8 32-38 12 10 12 39-45 12 14 16

24 and below No. of Respondents 14

46 and above 2

Chart 1: Classification of respondents based on their Age.

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b) Classification based on Occupation

Classification of Respondents based on their Occupation

Unemployed Retired Business Professional Govt. Employee Student 0 2 Student Occupation 16 4 Govt. Employee 8 6 8 10 Business 5 12 14 Retired 2 16 18

Professional 12

Unemployed 7

Chart 2: Classification of respondents based on their Occupation. c) Classification based on Education

Classification of Respondents based on their Education

Post Graduation Graduation Matric Primary 0 Education 2 Primary 3 4 6 Matric 15 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Graduation 19

Post Graduation 13

Chart 3: Classification of respondents based on their Education.

2) Whether RTI, 2005 exists? (Stage I Analysis) 7 out of 50 respondents did not know that the Right to Information Act, 2005 gave them the right to seek information from Government Authorities.

Stage 1
Did Know

Did not Know

0 Stage 1

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Did not Know 7

Did Know 43

Chart 4: Response showing whether or not RTI Act, 2005 exists.

3) Awareness about legal Provisions (Stage II Analysis) a) Do you know that the office is bound to reply you application within thirty (30) days? Out of the filtered forty three (43) respondents, twenty (20) people were aware of the fact that the public Authority was under a statutory duty to respond to an application within thirty (30) days. Out of these twenty (20), sixteen (16) were graduates and 4 were not. The remaining twenty three (23) people were not aware of this statutory limitation out of which 7 were graduates and sixteen (16) were not.

Awareness about 30 Day Limitation Period

No

Yes

0 Graduate Non-Graduate

4 Yes 16 4

10

12

14 No 7 16

16

18

Chart 5: Awareness about 30 days Statutory limitation.

b) Do you know that penalty may be imposed against the officer if the information is not provided to you within 30 days of receiving your application? As expected, the results as regards this question were no different from the previous one. The numbers are represented statistically below.

Knowledge of the Statutory Provision of Penalty if 30 Day Deadline exceeded

No

Yes

0 Graduate Non-Graduate

4 Yes 16 4

10

12

14 No 7 16

16

18

Chart 6: Knowledge of the Statutory Provision of Penalty if 30 Day Deadline exceeded c) Do you know that you need not to give reason for seeking information under the Act? This question, not surprisingly, produced different results. Out of the forty three (43) respondents, twenty five (25) replied in the affirmative and the rest eighteen (18) replied in the negative. Out
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of the lot of twenty five (25) people who replied in the affirmative, twenty (20) were graduates and five (5) were not. And out of the eighteen (18) people who replied in the negative, six (6) were graduates and the remaining twelve (12) were not. The results are shown below:

That the Applicant need not give reason for filing an RTI application
Yes

No

0 Graduate Non Graduate

5 No 12 6

10

15 Yes 5 20

20

25

Chart 7: Knowledge that the Applicant need not give reason for filing an RTI application. d) Do you know the appeal procedure laid down under the Act? This question was surprisingly easy for the respondents to answer. Out of the forty three (43) respondents, as many as thirty (30) of them answered in the positive while a miniscule thirteen (13) answered in the negative. Out of the ones who answered positively, all eleven (11) non-graduates (under-graduates) knew the existence of the provision of appeal. The results are illustrated as under:

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Knowledge of Provision for Appeal

No

Yes

0 Graduate Non Graduate

4 Yes 19 11

10

12

14 No 13 0

16

18

20

Chart 8: Knowledge of Provision of Appeal e) Have you ever filed an application under the R.T.I. Act, 2005? This was the question which, not surprisingly, attracted the least number of positive responses. As few as six (6) respondents answered in the affirmative and the rest thirty seven (37) answered in the negative. The results are shown below:

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Whether filed RTI ?

No

Yes

0 Whether filed RTI ?

10 Yes 6

15

20

25

30 No 37

35

40

Chart 9: Whether respondent has filed an RTI application before?

4) Personal Experience (Stage III Analysis) a) What was the reason for your filing the said application? Not surprisingly, of the six (6) respondents who cleared Stage II, two (2) of them had filed for a social cause and the remaining four (4) filed for their personal cause. Of the former category, both the applicants were below the age of twenty five (25) years and of the latter category, three (3) were above the age of 25 years and one (1) was below 25 years of age. The results are shown below:

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Reason for filing Application under RTI

4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Above 25 yrs. Below 25 yrs. Social Cause 0 2 Personal Cause 3 1

No. of Respondents

Chart 10: Reason for filing application under RTI Act. b) Did you receive the information within 30 days? It was observed that NO RESPONDENT was able to receive the information he sought within the statutory limit of thirty (30) days. This reflects the glim reality of the effectiveness of the Right to Information Act, 2005. c) Did you receive all the information/s sought by you?(and rest of the questions discussed) It was observed that NONE of the respondents had received satisfactory information about their query/(ies). It was not also noted the subsequent question involving filing an appeal against the P.I.O. in the first appellate authority and an opinion of the respondent as to whether RTI ACT, 2005 would help in bringing transparency, the responses were majorly towards the negative. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that all the applicants were of the opinion that the Act would hardly make any difference as regards transparency. The opinions would assume political flavor because of which their exact answers cannot be disclosed by the researcher.
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