Report
Sunshine in the Courts- Ranking the High Courts on Their Compliance With the RTI Act
Report content
The Right to Information Act, 2005 is the first of its kind sunshine law in India which aims at ushering in a transparency revolution. Not only does it provide a convenient mechanism for obtaining information from public authorities, the Act also creates a positive obligation upon authorities such as the High Courts and District Courts to proactively publish information about their functioning. The successful implementation of the Act has been made possible only by the aid of the judiciary which has led to the strengthening of the accountability of public institutions in India. Unfortunately, however, the judiciary has itself not been abiding by the letter and spirit of the RTI Act. Section 28 of the Act provides competent authorities, such as the High Courts, to devise their own set of Right to Information Rules, which the High Courts have used to circumvent the Act. The High Courts have also underperformed while complying with the disclosure requirements under Section 4 of the Act. After undertaking an extensive analysis on various parameters, the report ranks all the High Courts on their compliance with the RTI Act by devising four indices – Legality Index (which assesses the legality of the High Court RTI Rules vis-á-vis the RTI Act), Convenience Index (which assesses the extent to which the RTI Rules framed by the High Courts make it inconvenient for citizens to file RTI applications), Practice Index (which assesses the practices used by the Public Information Officers of the High Courts to respond to RTI applications) and the Disclosures Index (which assesses the quality of disclosures made by the High Courts under the RTI Act). Additionally, we also evaluate the quality of the disclosures made by the District Courts under the RTI Act. The report is in two volumes. Volume I is the main report which assesses the compliance of the High Courts with the RTI Act and explains the indices along with the findings. Volume II creates individual scorecards for individual high Courts and makes detailed recommendations to ensure their compliance with the Act.
Report document
Authors
Vaidehi Misra
Senior Resident Fellow
Vaidehi was a Senior Resident Fellow working in the area of Judicial Reforms. She has a B.A.LLB. (Hons.) degree from Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat and an LLM from the University of California, Berkeley with a focus on jurisprudence and social policy.
Chitrakshi Jain
Former Research Fellow
Chitrakshi Jain was a Research Fellow with the Judicial Reforms vertical. As a member of the vertical, she worked on issues such as judicial planning, transparency in the judiciary and the way the office of prosecution works in the criminal justice system in India. A 2014 graduate of NALSAR, Hyderabad she was working as a research associate for the Centre for Social Justice, Ahmedabad prior to joining Vidhi. Interested in pursuing research that lies at the intersection of law and social sciences, she completed her Masters in Politics from the University of Delhi.
Tarika Jain
Former Senior Resident Fellow
Tarika was a Senior Resident Fellow with the Health Team at Vidhi. She has also previously worked with the JALDI initiative and the Climate & Ecosystems Team, where she researched on efficiency, accountability and transparency in the judiciary with an empirical lens. She has written for leading journals and newspapers like Economic and Political Weekly, the Economic Times and the Indian Express. Tarika graduated from Gujarat National Law University with B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) in 2017 and has completed her postgraduate studies in Public Policy from University College London in 2021. She enjoys anime and rock music.
Shreya Tripathy
Senior Resident Fellow
Since 2018, I have worked in JALDI on topics such as judicial diversity, infrastructure and efficient budgeting for the judiciary. I have also undertaken several data-driven projects intending to understand the systemic problems of the judiciary at all levels and provide targeted solutions. I have publications in the Economic and Political Weekly and other law & policy review journals. I have also published in the Outlook and platforms such as Hindustan Times and The Print. My areas of interest include Human Rights & Judicial Reforms. I graduated with B.B.A.LL.B. from National Law University, Odisha in 2018. Before joining Vidhi, I interned in organizations like Nyaaya, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre and Partners for Law in Development. My dream for the Indian judiciary is that it becomes more inclusive and accessible for all. The general narrative when it comes to accessibility and the judiciary tends to shift towards litigants who may be Persons with Disabilities. It is high time that the judiciary starts changing this narrative and starts considering accessibility for all and at all levels including judicial officers and staff. I am an enthusiastic collector of cookbooks and love trying out recipes from around the world.
Prashant Reddy T.
Former Team Lead, JALDI
Prashant Reddy T. was a Senior Resident Fellow and former team lead of Judicial Reforms Initiative at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
Institution
High Court
Tags
Accountability
Transparency
Related articles
70 Years Of Indian Judiciary | Opinion: Resistance To Transparency Makes Our Courts Mysterious Institutions
This opinion was published in The Outlook on August 30, 2020.
The Indian Judiciary has declared a war on the RTI Act- and that's hampering judicial reform
This opinion was published in the Scroll on November 30, 2019.
The SC’s ruling on RTI is only a minor victory
This opinion was published in the Hindustan Times on November 25, 2019.
Provision in RTI Act allowing transfer of application to 'appropriate' department gives authorities easy escape route
This opinion was published in the Firstpost on April 30, 2019.
Privacy in the age of sunshine laws
This opinion was published in The Hindu on April 06, 2019.