According to the Right to Information Act- 2009 if any case of providing information collides with the Official Secrets Act-1923, then this Act has the authority to supersede those rules (section-3 of the RTI Act-2009). Section-3 of the RTI Act, 2009 goes as followed:
“Of any existing law–(a) the provisions of providing information shall not be affected by the provisions of this Act; and (b) the provisions of creating impediment in providing information shall be superseded by the provisions of this Act if they become conflicting with the provisions of this Act.”
The provision of the section-3 has been included in the RTI Act to remove the impediments created from the various existing laws in order to maintain consistent flow of information. For instance: the section-5(1) of the Official Secrets Act-1923 was enacted to maintain defense and strategic privacy. In most cases, the Government Authorities use this section showing as a reason of not providing information.
Section-5(1) also includes that, if any individual, possessing information regarding any secret matter under his control (a) exchanges the information willingly, (b) uses the information (c) sells the information or (d) fails to take balanced care of that information, then the individual would be considered as a lawbreaker as stated by that section. Such impediments in providing information have been removed by including section-3 in the Right To Information Act-2009.
Similarly, it is stated in the Rule 19 of the The Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979 that- ''A Government servant shall not, unless generally or especially empowered by the Government in this behalf, disclose directly or indirectly to Government servant belonging to other Ministries, Divisions or Departments, or to non-official persons or communicate any information which has come into his possession in the course of his official duties, or has been prepared or collected by him in the course of those duties, whether from official sources or otherwise.'' This barrier has also been removed.
Direct or indirectly imposed restrictions in providing information can be found in some other enduring acts and rules of the country. The Rule 28 (1) of the Rules of Business, 1996 says that ‘’No information acquired directly from official documents or relating to official matters shall be communicated by a Government servant to the press, to non officials or even officials belonging to other Government offices, unless he has been generally or specially empowered to do so.‟ But the RTI Act has removed all such existing impediments in the process of making information accessible.
According to the Section-3, if any individual appeals to get information under the provision of the RTI Act, then all or similar restrictions aforesaid would become dormant and therefore, would be denied. The right to accessing information of people has been ensured by the section-4 of the RTI Act and the authorities are mandatorily obligated to provide the sought information under the section-7 of the RTI Act.
Thus, the RTI Act would empower the people of this country by encouraging the practice of asking and obtaining information. So it can be said that, the RTI Act carries the controlling key from the hold of the state to the people and this Act should be considered as a vital instrument of achieving the rights of people provided in other acts.
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