Edupulapati Akshay, Alliance School of Law, Alliance University, Bangalore
ABSTRACT
Citizens in India have the right to request information from public agencies under the Right to Information Act, 2005. It was passed in order to strengthen citizen access to information held by public agencies and to advance openness and accountability in government. The Act covers all levels of government in India, including the federal, state, and municipal levels, as well as public authorities, organisations, and businesses that get significant government funding. It also applies to all Indian states and union territories.
Ultimately, by ensuring that individuals have access to information kept by public agencies, the Right to Information Act of 2005 seeks to improve openness and accountability in government. The Act has received widespread praise as an important step towards advancing democracy and giving Indian individuals more control.
This paper includes the role of the right to information act in the democratic governance it also contains the importance, significance and objective of the act in the public. It discusses about the advantages and disadvantages of the Right to information act. The paper talks about the challenges faced by the Act, some of the important provisions and cases related to them, the recent amendments in the act also discussed about the criticism of the Act.
Keywords: Right to information act, citizens participation, public authorities, Democracy, Access to information, Transparency, Corruption.
