With the mental growth and advancement of science, technology and industry the growing consciousness of human rights and liberties paved way for democratic form of governance. Freedom is an inbuilt desire in almost every animate being. Therefore the growing consciousness for various liberties resulted in revolutions against the autocracies and monarchies in the various parts of the world and the political scenario was visited by democracy, growing and flourishing in a big way, in many countries of the world. The one of the major endeavors of democracy was to accord growth of human liberties and dignity.
India is considered the largest democracy in the world. The basic feature of every democratic country is transparency, openness and accountability. In India, public authorities or administrative authorities have a wide discretionary power, so it was thought by the legislators as well public that this may lead to misuse of power which will ultimately result in maladministration and corruption. For this purpose, there should be a right vested in the common people of the country to access the information regarding the conduct or act discharged by public officials, so the system of check and balance can be maintained. Therefore, the Right to Information has emerged. Right to Information implies that the public can participate in governance by accessing the information held by administrative or public authorities regarding the function discharged by them for the public welfare. Right to information is the need of the current scenario because it assists to maintain transparency and accountability in government work. It helps to create a situation where the general public can get details of government action, plans, Yojana, schemes, etc., which aids to enhance the responsiveness of government towards society. This Act is very necessary for each and everyone due to this our government officials and public institutions gathered information and work upon them. It embedded the right of every citizen of India to have access or control of the information related to finance to any authority by the state, thereby responsibility arises on the authority to use the information effectively without including into any corrupt activities. Right to Information Act, 2005 promotes harmonious construction between people and the government of people. Earlier, where the situation arose public officer became superior-oriented rather than service-oriented because there were no checks upon them regarding their services. But the RTI Act, provide a straitjacket solution to make public officer again service-oriented. Now under RTI Act, people have the right to get details of public authorities so, it creates a fear of exposing the mind of the public servant, which is changing the attitude of public officers towards their duties and responsibilities.
Right to information is a weapon in the hands of citizens of the country to know the functions performed by public authorities, the purpose of the public transaction said to done in the name of the public act and the source of finance to discharge such functions. Right to information exists before the enactment of the Right to Information Act,2005 because it is considered as one of the fundamental rights within the purview of Article 19(1)(a). This right promote transparency, accountability in function discharge by public authorities. Although the Right to information is considered an advancement in India it suffers from several drawbacks which need to be revised and improved.
