The Right to Information Act:

1. Aim and objectives:

2. Section 8:
3. Dynamics of Right to Information Act by Prof M. Sridhar Acharyulu.
4. Reason for the Act:
5. RTI core principles:
Maximum proactive disclosure
Obligation to publish
Promotion of open government
Limited scope of exemtpions
6. Who should distribute the information: Information held or controlled by public authority
7. Section 3: All citizens shall have the right to information
8. Right to Know: Bennett Coleman AIR 1973 SC 60: the right to information was held to be
included within the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Art 19 (1) (a)
9. In Raj Narain (1975) 4 SCC 428: the court explicitly stated: The people of this country have
a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public
funcionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its
bearings.
10. Section 2 (f): Information: Information held by private bodies, if access is provided by any
law, can be shared.
11. Duties of PIOs:
12. Old information beyond 20 years can be refused by the PIO to be supplied: Section 8 (3)
13. Section 2 (h): Public authority
14. Information which cannot be given:
Harmful to sovereignty, integrity, secuirty, strategic, economic, scientific, foreign relation,
confidential etc.
Prohibited by courts, tribunals, contempt of court, privileges of Parliament, process of
investigation, impedes arrest or prosecutin, cabinet papers debates, notes etc.
Commercial: trade secrets, confidential IPRs etc
Injuring others rights: Not useful in interest of people, privacy of third party, injuring
copyright of others etc.
Mobile Courts:

PC & PNDT Act:

1. Constitutional Provisions relating to Rights of Mother & Child and need for enactment of
PNDT Act:
2. Different provisionsof PNDT Act and its loopholes.
3. Plugging the loopholes through PC & PNDT Act and its proper implementation through
stakeholders.
4. Role of judiciary in effective implementation of the Act
5. Hemanta Rath vs Union of India:
6. Prohibiting sex selection before conception & after conception
Medical Jurisprudence concerning informed consent:
1. Ethics is a philosophical discipline pertaining to notions of good and bad, right and wrongour moral life in community.
2. Bio-ethics: It is the application of ethics to the field of medicine and health-care.
3. Universal Declaration on Bio-ethics and Medicines:

4. Dr. Jacob Mathew vs State of Punjab and another: 2005 SCC 456: The SC held that in order
to make a doctor criminally responsible for the death of a patient, it must be established that
there was negligence or incompetence on the doctor's part which went beyond a mere
question of compensation on the basis of civil liability.
5. Criminal Appeal No. (Dy. No. 22272/2016): Asit Baran Mondal and another vs Rita Sinha
and another:
6. Informed consent:
permission granted in full knowledge of the possible consequence, typically that which is
given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with knowledge of the possible risks and
benefits.
Written informed consent was obtained from each patient.
International convention: The process by which a patient learns about and understands the
purpose, benefits, and potential risks of a medical or surgical intervention, including clinical
trial, and then agrees to receive the treatment and participate in the
7. Six National Bioethics Conference 2017
8. Article 4 of UD on Bioethics and Human Rights on benefit and harm emphasizes that in
applying and advancing scientific knowledge, medical practice and associated technologies,
direct and indirect benefit to patients research participants and other affected individuals
should be maximized and any possible harm to such individuals should minimize.
9. Criminal Negligence: Negligence is simple terms is the failure to take due care and caution
it is a breach of a duty caused by the omission to do something which a reasonable personguided by those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairsshould have done. It may also be doing something, which a prudent and reasonable person
would not have done. The essential components of negligence are duty, breach and resulting
damage. Dr. Jacob Mathew vs State of Punjab and another: 2005 SCC 456:
10. Article 6 (1) of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights: Every medical
treatment requires the patient's informed consent. The significance, the invasion of his body,
understands the significance of his medical condition and the meaning of the treatment, the
dangers, and the benefits inherent in the treatment, and grants his informed consent willingly
and without coercion.
11. Elements of informed consent:
Free will: without coercion or outside pressure
Information: the patient must receive all of the information regarding his condition and the
proposed treatment, including alternative treatments, side effects and the effect of not
receiving treatment.
Competency: The patient must be competent to make an informed decision.
12. Information required or informed consent:
Information about alternative treatments.
Acting without prior consent due to an unforeseen medical problem
Special importance of informed consent for irreversible procedures.
Assumed consent of an unconscious patient.
13. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human rights reads as follows:
Human dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms are to be fully respected.
The interests and welfare of the individual should have priority over the sole interest of
science or society.