Cong man challenges RTI Act amendment in apex court

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 31

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre on senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s PIL challenging recent amendments to the RTI Act that left it to the government to fix the tenure and service conditions of information commissioners.

An apex court Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice KM Joseph asked the Centre to respond in four weeks to the notice.

According to Ramesh , also a former Union minister, the Information (Amendment) Act 2019 hit the independence of the Central Information Commission (CIC) and the State Information Commissions (SICs).

The “unbridled and un-canalized” discretionary power vested in the Centre “jeopardises the independence of information commissioners,” the petitioner said, adding it had no rational nexus with the object of the Act.