RTI activists welcome verdict -Anita Joshua

-The Telegraph

The activists were speaking against the backdrop of the govt weakening the RTI architecture through amendments

The Supreme Court judgment bringing the Chief Justice of India’s office under the Right to Information Act was welcomed by RTI activists but some of them disagreed with the observation of one of the judges that the “right to information should not be allowed to be used as a tool of surveillance to scuttle effective functioning of the judiciary”.

Venkatesh Nayak, who heads the Access to Information Programme at the NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, welcomed the judgment but added that it was unfortunate that Justice N.V. Ramana has made the surveillance comment, in a separate but concurring judgment.

“The RTI cannot be equated with surveillance tools used by the government and its agencies to snoop on people. Surveillance is an affront to and violation of people’s basic freedom and dignity,” Nayak told The Telegraph.

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