Best practices and the approach of Information Commissions in different departments

Right to Information · Unit V · Topic 16 of 16 · 6 min read

What 'best practices' means under the RTI Act, the measures adopted by Governments and Commissions (online filing, proactive disclosure, hybrid hearings, training), and how the principles of the Act apply to requests to the police, revenue, public works, irrigation, the secretariat, BSNL and the Posts, banks, the Income Tax and Excise departments, and local authorities.

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On this page

1. What a best practice is
2. Practices of Governments and public authorities
3. Practices of the Commissions
4. Department by department
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The examinable core. The syllabus asks for “a study of decisions rendered by State and Central Commissions” across a list of departments. The examiner wants two things: an account of good practices that make the Act work, and the ability to say, for a given department, what is usually disclosed and what is usually withheld, and why. The reasons are always the same handful of provisions: section 4, section 8(1)(a), (d), (e), (g), (h) and (j), section 8(2), section 10, section 11 and section 24.

1. What a “best practice” is

A best practice is a method adopted by a public authority, a Government or a Commission that makes access to information quicker, cheaper or more complete than the bare Act requires, or that reduces the need to file requests at all. The test is section 4(2): the endeavour is to give so much information suo motu that “the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act”. A good answer gives examples under four heads.

2. Practices of Governments and public authorities

Online filing. The Central Government’s RTI Online portal (rtionline.gov.in) lets a citizen file requests and first appeals to Central public authorities and pay the fee electronically; Karnataka has its own portal (rtionline.karnataka.gov.in) for State authorities. Rule 6(c) of the RTI Rules, 2012 permits electronic payment.
Proactive disclosure. Publishing the seventeen section 4(1)(b) categories on websites, with annual updating and third-party audit of the disclosures; publishing tenders, contracts, work orders and beneficiary lists; putting land records online (Karnataka’s computerised land records are an early example).
Good records management. Indexing and cataloguing under section 4(1)(a), the records officer system under the Public Records Act, and digitisation, so that information can be found within thirty days.
Training and guides. Training of PIOs and appellate authorities and the publication of a citizen’s guide, which section 26 requires of the appropriate Government.
Social audit. Reading out muster rolls and accounts in the village, the practice that began with the MKSS and is now built into rural employment schemes.

3. Practices of the Commissions

Hearings by video conference and hybrid hearings, so applicants need not travel to the State capital; rule 12(2) of the 2012 Rules allows the Central Commission to hear by video conference, and the Supreme Court in Kishan Chand Jain, 2023 INSC 915, directed State Commissions to offer hybrid hearings.
Monitoring section 4 compliance and issuing recommendations under section 25(5), as directed in Kishan Chand Jain, 2023 INSC 741.
Using section 19(8)(a) to require structural changes — appointing PIOs, publishing categories of information, improving record keeping, training — instead of deciding only the individual appeal.
Imposing penalties consistently where the PIO cannot show reasonable cause, and awarding compensation where the applicant has been put to loss.
Publishing their own annual reports under section 25 with department-wise figures.

4. Department by department

The points below are the principles the Commissions apply; in an answer, state the principle and the provision.

Police. A copy of one’s own FIR, the status of a complaint, and the action taken on it are generally given. Case diaries and investigation material during investigation are withheld under section 8(1)(h); information identifying informants or endangering witnesses under section 8(1)(g). After the charge-sheet is filed and the trial is over, the ground in clause (h) weakens. Information about allegations of custodial violence is a human rights matter and, even for excluded organisations, cannot be withheld under section 24.
Revenue. Land records, mutation entries, survey records and the file on a citizen’s own application are disclosable; much is now published online. Third party title papers attract section 11 notice.
PWD, CPWD and Irrigation. Tenders after award, contracts, estimates, measurement books, quality test reports and completion certificates are disclosable, and section 2(j) gives a right to inspect works and take certified samples of material. A bidder’s technical secrets may be protected under section 8(1)(d) until the public interest outweighs the harm.
Secretariat. File notings, orders and reasons for decisions are information; cabinet papers are exempt under section 8(1)(i) until the decision is taken and the matter is complete, after which the decision, reasons and material must be made public.
BSNL and the Department of Posts. Both are public authorities (a Government company and a Government department). Records of the applicant’s own connection, bills, postal articles, money orders and savings accounts can be given to him; another customer’s records are personal information under section 8(1)(j), and commercial information of BSNL may fall under section 8(1)(d).
Scheduled banks. Public sector banks and the Reserve Bank are public authorities; private banks are not, though information the Reserve Bank holds about them can be sought from it. A customer may get his own account information. Other customers’ accounts and securities are personal information. The Reserve Bank cannot claim a fiduciary relationship with banks to refuse information on defaults and inspections: Jayantilal Mistry (2015).
Income Tax Department. An assessee may get his own records. Another person’s returns are personal information: Girish Deshpande (2012). Information that would impede an assessment or prosecution is exempt under section 8(1)(h). The Directorate General of Income-tax (Investigation) is in the Second Schedule and excluded except for corruption and human rights information.
Central Excise and Customs. The same pattern: own records yes; third party’s business information under sections 8(1)(d) and 11; pending investigations under 8(1)(h). The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is in the Second Schedule.
Local authorities. Panchayats and municipalities are institutions of self-government constituted by law and so public authorities. Budgets, works, beneficiary lists, building plan approvals and trade licences are disclosable and should be published under section 4(1)(b)(xi) to (xiii).

A safe formula for any department. (1) Is the body a public authority, or is it in the Second Schedule? (2) Is the information held by it? (3) Is it the applicant’s own information, the authority’s administrative information, or another person’s? (4) Which clause of section 8 applies, if any? (5) Does section 8(2) override it? (6) Can the exempt part be severed under section 10? (7) Is section 11 notice required?

How this is examined

“What is best practices? Give an account of best practices adopted by some public authorities” (April 2021) and “Quote some of the best practices adopted by the Central Information Commission, State Information Commission and Governments for the effective implementation of the RTI Act” (November 2021), each for 16 marks. Define the term from section 4(2), then give sections 2 and 3 of this note, and close with three or four departments from section 4 to show the principles in use. Do not invent decision numbers or names of Commission orders; state the principle and the provision, which is what earns the marks.

Now try the real questions: Right to Information past question papers.