RTI at 21: Study flags data gaps, rising backlogs, appeal pendency across Union government

As the Right to Information (RTI) Act completed 21 years since its enactment on June 21, 2005, a detailed analysis of the Central Information Commission's (CIC) Annual Report for 2024-25 has raised questions about reporting accuracy, transparency practices and the overall implementation of the law across Union government institutions.

The study, conducted by Venkatesh Nayak, Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), examines RTI statistics submitted by 53 Union ministries, the Departments of Atomic Energy and Space, and 12 key public authorities including the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Supreme Court, Election Commission of India, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Delhi Police and the CIC itself.

The analysis compares RTI performance indicators for 2024-25 with those of 2023-24 and identifies a range of improvements as well as areas of concern in the implementation of the transparency law.

"The CIC does not appear to have deeply examined the data submitted by public authorities, ministries and departments," Nayak said in the report. "After 21 years of enforcement of the RTI Act, the CIC must make the effort to redefine its role from being a mere accountant of RTI statistics to that of an auditor of the performance of ministries, departments and public authorities vis-à-vis their obligations under the regime of transparency established by the RTI Act."

One of the key findings relates to reporting compliance. According to the study, the RTI Online Portal currently lists 2,914 public authorities. However, the CIC's annual report states that RTI statistics were received from 2,303 public authorities and describes this as 100 per cent compliance. The study argues that the discrepancy raises questions about the basis of the CIC's compliance claim.

The report also notes that the Union Territory administration of Ladakh has not reported RTI statistics since the reorganisation of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.

The volume of RTI applications continued to grow during 2024-25, albeit modestly. The study records a 2.52 per cent increase in RTI applications compared with the previous year. Excluding Union Territories, the growth rate falls to 1.26 per cent. However, compared with 2020-21, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase stands at 34 per cent.

For the first time, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs emerged as the largest recipient of RTI applications, receiving approximately 2.54 lakh requests through its 65 reporting public authorities. This surpassed the Ministry of Finance, which received about 2.20 lakh applications through more than 200 reporting authorities.

The study found that five ministries—Corporate Affairs, Finance, Railways, Education and Defence—accounted for more than half of all RTI applications filed during 2024-25, despite representing only about one-fourth of the reporting public authorities.

While application volumes increased, the backlog of pending RTI requests also grew by 3.03 per cent across reporting public authorities. However, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs reported a dramatic reduction in pending applications, from 12,413 in 2023-24 to 1,619 in 2024-25.

Several prominent institutions reported substantial increases in pending RTI applications. These included the Indian Air Force, PMO, Election Commission of India, Central Information Commission and NITI Aayog.

The study also highlighted a significant rise in transfers of RTI applications between public authorities. Such transfers increased by nearly 18 per cent, from 2.37 lakh in 2023-24 to 2.80 lakh in 2024-25. The Cabinet Secretariat transferred more than half of the RTI applications it received, while the Ministry of Corporate Affairs recorded the lowest transfer ratio among major ministries.

A notable trend identified by the report is the decline in RTI fee collections despite an increase in applications. Application fees collected fell by 6.15 per cent and additional fees declined by 4.21 per cent. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, despite receiving 13.07 per cent more applications, reported a 31.36 per cent drop in fee collections.

The analysis also points to inconsistencies in penalty-related data. While the CIC's narrative report states that penalties amounting to Rs 1.56 lakh were imposed on errant Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs), the aggregated statistical table records only Rs 453 as penalties collected by public authorities. The study notes several reported penalty collections as low as Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 4, Rs 17 and Rs 79, figures that appear inconsistent with the RTI Act's minimum penalty provision of Rs 250.

The number of RTI applications replied to by public authorities declined from 14.30 lakh in 2023-24 to 13.81 lakh in 2024-25, representing a decrease of 3.46 per cent.

Contrary to frequent claims that RTI requests impose excessive burdens on officials, the study found that the average workload per CPIO actually decreased. The annual average expected workload fell from 63.88 RTI applications per CPIO in 2023-24 to 63.02 in 2024-25. Based on actual replies, the annual average declined from 53.15 to 49.85 applications per CPIO.

The report also examined rejection trends. According to the CIC, approximately 58,500 RTI applications were rejected during 2024-25. However, the exemption-wise totals in the annual report indicate 57,985 rejections. The study relies on the latter figure for its analysis.

A significant finding is that nearly 35 per cent of all RTI rejections were classified under unspecified reasons grouped under "others" rather than under the exemption provisions of Sections 8, 9, 11 or 24 of the RTI Act.

The Ministry of Finance accounted for more than one-third of all RTI rejections across the Union government and Union Territories. The Ministries of Home Affairs and Defence followed, with the three ministries together accounting for nearly 58 per cent of all rejections.

The report also notes that the Election Commission of India officially reported zero RTI rejections during both 2023-24 and 2024-25. However, Nayak stated that he had personally received denials of information under Section 7(9) from Election Commission officials during the same period.

Another notable trend was a sharp decline in the use of Section 8(1)(a), the national security exemption. Its invocation dropped from 2,206 instances in 2023-24 to 1,008 in 2024-25. By contrast, the use of Section 8(1)(j), relating to personal privacy, increased and accounted for nearly 39 per cent of all exemption-based rejections.

The study specifically addressed concerns often raised about RTI requests affecting national security. According to the analysis, the Indian Army invoked the national security exemption only once during 2024-25, compared with 60 times in the previous year. Most Army rejections were based on personal privacy grounds.

The appeals process emerged as another area of concern. The number of first appeals filed across the Union government was approximately two-and-a-half times higher than the number of rejections, suggesting widespread dissatisfaction with responses received from public authorities.

Nearly 40 per cent of first appeals remained pending at the end of 2024-25. The Ministries of Finance, Education, Railways, Defence and Home Affairs together accounted for more than half of all first appeals filed.

The study also reported a sharp reduction in the number of First Appellate Authorities (FAAs), from the previous year, resulting in a near doubling of average workload per FAA. Nevertheless, the annual average disposal burden remained below 10 appeals per FAA.

Among major public institutions, the poorest first-appeal disposal rates were reported by the Supreme Court of India, Election Commission of India, Comptroller and Auditor General and the Prime Minister's Office. In contrast, the President's Secretariat and the Central Information Commission recorded disposal rates exceeding 90 per cent.

Calling for a broader review of RTI implementation, Nayak argued that two decades after the law came into force, insufficient effort has been made to assess how RTI has improved governance and administrative accountability.

"There is much that needs to be done to improve the performance of CPIOs and FAAs," he said. "Perhaps it is time to appoint a body to examine the impact of RTI on the public administration at the Union and state levels."

The study marks the first in a planned series of analyses examining implementation trends in individual ministries, departments and public authorities based on the CIC's latest annual report.