We congratulate Anoop Awasthi, CCS’s RTI fellow for having successfully campaigned for improvisation of the Delhi High Court’s RTI rules. A long journey started for Anoop, an active and enthusiastic social activist, lawyer by profession who noticed some anomalies in the rules regarding RTI as applicable in few High Courts in India. These rules are distinct from the RTI rules and procedures appropriate to other institutions. Some of the most prominent differences include High Court’s charging fees for filing appeals amounting to Rs.50 while the RTI Act doesn’t mention any such fee. The main contention behind which is mass approach to which charging a fee is a plausible impediment.

In addition to this charging an amount of Rs 5 per page (of printed information as sought by the applicant) and Rs 10 per page on urgent information is irrational and excessive and acts to discourage the applicant. All these fees in RTI Act 2005 are nominal and a person below poverty line is exempted from paying any such fee. But fees being charged by Delhi High Court are very high and hence difficult to confirm with the spirit and scheme of the RTI Act 2005. To add to these the restricted time band (from 11 am to 1 pm) for filing an application and the requirement of making the payment in cash acts to the inconvenience of information seekers.

However with Anoop’s persistent efforts several positive changes have come about with Patna High Court being the first ones to take note and bring about amendments. This was followed by the High Court of Delhi which earlier this week informed Anoop about the acceptance of the said differences and enforcing changes as suggested by him to make RTI rules simpler and friendly (More details at- http://ccs.in/anoop_delhi-high-court_rti-rules.pdf ).