High Court directs Karnataka Information Commission to create central RTI disclosure repository

High Court directs Karnataka Information Commission to create central RTI disclosure repository

The High Court of Karnataka has mandated a standardized format for public authorities to collect and disclose RTI implementation data. This directive aims to eliminate fragmented reporting by requiring uniform tracking of applications, appeals, and penalties. By enforcing consistent documentation, the court seeks to enhance transparency and accountability in how government bodies handle information requests, ensuring that procedural compliance is verifiable and comparable across different departments. A central electronic repository will be established on the Karnataka Information Commission’s website, allowing citizens to access disclosures from various authorities without separate searches. This digital index promotes efficient data retrieval and public oversight. The requirement for electronic maintenance ensures that records are easily searchable and sortable, reducing administrative burden while significantly improving the accessibility of crucial governance metrics for the general public. This ruling is vital for open data initiatives as it establishes a precedent for structured, machine-readable public reporting. By forcing agencies to proactively disclose performance metrics in a uniform format, it facilitates easier aggregation and analysis by civil society and researchers. This structural change supports the broader open data goal of transforming raw government information into accessible, actionable insights for accountability.

Source: thehindu.com
Published on 2026-09-30