Information Commission’s key role in ensuring right to information
The article highlights a critical failure in the implementation of Right to Information laws, where bureaucratic indifference and weak adjudication undermine democratic accountability. Despite legal frameworks designed to ensure transparency, public authorities frequently ignore information requests, often responding only when compelled by adjudicating bodies. This pattern of non-compliance persists because the Information Commission routinely directs disclosure without penalizing officials, signaling a lack of serious consequence for disregarding mandatory legal duties. A major impediment to effective oversight is the Information Commission’s tendency to accept exemptions from government bodies without rigorous scrutiny or legal justification. Instead of acting as a robust guardian of transparency, the Commission often fails to question the validity of denied requests or investigate the reasons for non-response. This passive approach erodes public trust, as citizens perceive the law as ineffective and the arbiters as indifferent to the systemic neglect of their civic rights. This analysis is vital to open data discussions because it illustrates that legal transparency mechanisms are insufficient without active, enforceable accountability. Simply publishing data or allowing access requests does not guarantee openness if the institutions responsible for enforcement are weak or biased. For open data to truly function, adjudicating bodies must actively protect citizen access, apply sanctions for non-compliance, and ensure that transparency laws tilt in favor of public scrutiny rather than governmental secrecy.
Source: thedailystar.netPublished on 2023-04-16