The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the nodal agency for the implementation of the RTI Act has proposed a series of amendments to the RTI  (Regulation of fee and cost) Rules 2005 and the Central Information Commission (Appeal Procedure) Rules, 2005. Specifically, the amendments seek to restrict the number of words that an applicant can use while filing an information request under the RTI Act 2005.In addition, to curbing the word limit, the new rules also seek to restrict the questions filed under the RTI to one subject matter. DoPT invited citizens and organisations to send in their comments on the draft rules by 27th December 2010. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has drafted preliminary comments on the amendments and submitted these to the government for consideration (see attached).

Specifically, CHRI recommends the following:

• Extending the timeline for public consultation on the draft Rules by at least one more month to enable effective participation of citizens who are not Internet‐literate;

• Publicising the text of the draft Rules in popular English and regional language dailies along with an explanation as to why changes are being made in the existing set of RTI Rules;

• Publicising the consultation exercise through radio and TV channels to reach out to a wider cross‐section of the citizenry;

• Issuing an assurance publicly that the number and types of objections received in relation to every draft Rule/sub‐Rule and cogent reasons for rejecting any of them will be published along with the notification of the final version of the Rules;

• Acting upon the said assurance with due diligence at the time of notifying the final version of the draft Rules; and

• The draft Rules applicable for the second appeal process may be made applicable to complaints as well.

For a detailed account of CHRI’s recommendations to the government, click on the document attached with this blog post.