Suo moto disclosures under the RTI Act

Section 4 of the RTI Act requires the public authorities to proactively disclose certain categories of information to the citizens. By mandating that the public authorities have to provide some information on their own accord, the aim of the provision is to reduce/eliminate the need to file an RTI Application and thereby save time, effort and money of both the citizens and the public authorities. The following is the list of the categories of information that a public authority is required to disseminate on its own:

Categories of information specified under Section 4:

(i) the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties

(ii) the powers and duties of its officers and employees

(iii) the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability

(iv) the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions

(v) the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions

(vi) a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control

(vii) the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof

(viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public

(ix) a directory of its officers and employees

(x) the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations

(xi) the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made

(xii) the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes

(xiii) particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it

(xiv) details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form

(xv) the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use

(xvi) the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers;

(xvii) such other information as may be prescribed;

Information on policies, decisions, provide reasons:

Section 4 information is not limited to the organisational details, rules etc of a public authority only, rather, sub sections 4(1) (c) and 4(1) (d) obligate the public authorities to publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public and provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons. Section 4 therefore calls upon the public authorities to lay bare their decision making process, which is a key requirement of the democratic form of Governance.

Regular updation of Section 4 information:

The Section requires that the categories of information are to be updated yearly and is to be disseminated through various means of communication including internet. Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has vide its Office Memorandum (OM) dated 30.6.2016 directed that website and other medium of publication of a public authority relating to Section 4 compliance must carry the date on which the information was uploaded/printed.

DoPT OMs on Section 4:

The Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India has issued the following Office Memorandums pertaining to Section 4:

Sl.No	File No.	Date	Subject	Advise/recommendation
1.	1/8/2012-IR	11/9/2012	Sou motu disclosure on official tours of Ministers and other officials.	Public authorities advised to proactively disclose the details of foreign and domestic official tours of joint secretary and above since 1 Jan 2012 after due application of Section 8 exemptions.
2.	1/6/2011-IR	15/04/2013	Implementation of sou motu disclosure under section 4 of RTI Act, 2005- Issue of guidelines regarding.	Public authorities to proactively disclose information on procurement, public private partnership, transfer policy/orders, RTI applications, CAG&PAC paras, citizen charters, discretionary and non-discretionary grants, foreign tours of PM/Ministers, digital publication of proactive disclosures. Contained guidelines  on how to make proactive disclosure more effective. Advised that third party audit of compliance made under Section 4 be conducted and nodal officers appointed.
3.	1/34/2013-IR	29/06/2015	Implementation of sou motu disclosure under section 4 of RTI Act, 2005	Contains recommendations of committee constituted to recommend measures to strengthen implementation of Section 4.
4.	1/34/2013-IR	30/06/2016	DoPT to examine the recommendations of the Committee of Experts on suo motu disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005.	Public authorities to constitute consultative committees to advise on which information to be uploaded suo-moto. Information and facilitation centres to be set up. Frequently asked information to be identified by committee of CPIO and FAA’s and disclosed in public domain, transparency audit to be undertaken by Ministry/Department’s Training institutes.

Conclusion:

If implemented in the right earnest, Section 4 can channelise effective dissemination of vital information from the Government to a citizen and can enhance transparency and accountability in government functioning.

Before filing an RTI application, citizens should check the website of the relevant public authority to find out whether the information desired by them is suo-moto published by the public authority and is hence already available in public domain as that would obviate the need to file an RTI application.