Resurrecting the Right To Know

The Hindu 19th August 2020 Save

Context: The recent bold and progressive decision taken by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) to release the High-Level Committee report (constituted to define Assamese People), has resurrected citizens right to know.

Judicial Evolution of the Right to Know:

Direct Emanation for the Right to Information:

In the State of U.P. v. Raj Narain (1975), segregated those documents which require protection even though their contents may not be damaging to the national interest.
For E.g. Cabinet papers, foreign office despatches, papers regarding the security of the state and high-level interdepartmental minutes.

Pragmatic View Reserved: The Court held that the citizens have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public functionaries.

A Shift from Need to Right: In S.P. Gupta vs President Of India (1981) case, the court emphasised more on the right of the citizen to know than on his ‘need to know’ the contents of official documents.
Win over Official Secrets Act (OSA), 1923: The court declined the violation of OSA in light of public interest.

In Yashwant Sinha v. Central Bureau of Investigation (2019): The Supreme Court held that there is no provision by which the Parliament has vested powers in the government to restrain the publication of the document marked as secret.
Justice K.M. Joseph referred to Section 8(2) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 which provides that a citizen can get a certified copy of a document even if the matter pertains to security or relationship with a foreign nation if a case is made out.
The right to know can be curtailed only in limited circumstances and if there is an overriding public interest.

Way Forward:

Tackle Secrecy with Transparency: As secrecy tends to encourage oppression, corruption, abuse of authority without any public accountability.
Governments must encourage the citizen’s right to know and be more transparent in the public interest, as long as the security of the country is not jeopardised.