What do you understand by Right to Know?

Elaborate the genesis and historical development of

Right of Know in India in the light of International and National legal developments.

In R.P Ltd v Indian Express Newspaper the SC reads right to know in article 21. The SC held that right
to know is a necessary ingredient of participatory democracy. In view of translational development
when distance are shrinking international communities are coming together for cooperation in
various sphere and they are moving toward the global preparative in various field including human
right ,the expression liberty must receive and expanded meaning . The Supreme Court is limited
mere absence of bodily restrain. It is wide enough to expand full range of right to hold a particular
opinion and right to sustain and nurture that opinion Article 21 confer on all person a right to know
which include right to receive information. The ambit and scope of article 21 is much wider as
compared to article 19(1)(a). Over past two decades, right to know laws have become one of the
most innovative and effective means for protecting the environment and public health. These laws,
also known as information disclosure statute, serve number of board and important societal
interests. Right to know laws helps to improve the efficient functioning of the market. Armed with
better information, consumer can make informed decision, and press for safer products. Better
informed worker can negotiate for less toxic working conditions, or demand wages premiums for
hazardous jobs. Investor in securities market can act more knowledgeably; indeed, studies shows
that stock prices significantly to the release of environmental information; upward when information
reveals a firm’s superior performance; downward when poor performance is revealed.

Genesis and Historical Development

Information Rights have a long history of around 246 years, if the international front is taken
account of:-

1766 –World's first Freedom of Information Act was issued in Stockholm on December 2, 1766.This
law in Sweden established press freedom and those at stake included the government, courts, and
parliament. Sweden's constitution thus recognised that press freedom is contingent upon access to
information.

1789– A part of the French Constitution, Declaration of Human and Civic Rights, has Article 14
stating that: "All citizens have the right to ascertain, by themselves, or through their representatives,
the need for a public tax, to consent to it freely, to watch over its use, and to determine its
proportion, basis, collection and duration.

1946– The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in 1946, which in regard to
Freedom to Information stated, "Freedom of Information is a fundamental right and is the
touchstone of all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated. Freedom of Information
implies the right to gather, transmit and publish news anywhere and everywhere without fetters.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948 UDHR expressly mentioned in its Article
19(2),"Everyone shall have the Right to Freedom of expression which shall include freedom to: seek,
receive and impart information; regardless of frontiers - orally, in writing, or in print.”
Indian Perspective:-

In 1975 the Supreme Court, in State of UP vs Raj Narain, ruled that: “In a government of
responsibility like ours where the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct there
can be but a few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything
that is done in a public way by their public functionaries.

SP Gupta & others vs The President of India and others, 1982 The Supreme Court of India, hearing a
matter relating to the transfer of judges, held that the right to information was a fundamental right
under the Indian Constitution.

In People's Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India,2004 participatory governance was
emphasised upon. The right to information was further elevated to the status of a human right
which is necessary for making governance transparent and accountable.

In K. Ravi Kumar v. Bangalore University, 2005 the apex court held that the public authorities
cannot deny completely any document on the ground of "confidentiality".

Thus, the Right to Information may be taken to be a basic right, to which citizens of a free country
aspire, in the broad ambit of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

The journey of the Right to Information from a "Bill" to an "Act" may be divided into three phases:

PHASE 1-1975 to 1996- There were infrequent, irregular demands to public and private authorities
for information, from various constituent social groups, coming to a crescendo in more focused ones
in the mid-1980s. Grassroots movements in rural Rajasthan in the early 1990s were a major push.
The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) was formed in 1996, and that
culminated this phase. Various judicial orders in support of transparency were seen during this
period.

PHASE 2–1996 to 2005- This phase is marked by the formulation of a draft RTI bill, spearheaded by
the NCPRI. The subsequent processing by the government and the Parliament of the same is too, a
bit of it. Rapid growth in size and influence of the RTI movement in India was seen, and as the
National RTI Act was passed in 2005, this phase came to a close. This is also the period that sees a
large number of countries across the world enact transparency laws.

PHASE 3–2005 to (present)- If we guide our focus on the time from the end of 2005 to the present,
we will see that the consolidation of the act and on pushing for proper implementation has been
taken up as the new challenge. Part of the effort has also been to afford protection to the RTI Act
from any attempt to weaken it by those in power and being called "public" authorities. To push the
boundaries of the RTI regime and make it deeper and wider in coverage, participation, and impact is
a matter gaining rapid importance. The increasing efforts to look at the Constitutional perspective
and newer applications bringing out loopholes in the form of relevant questions can be seen here.

This Act has proven itself to be a milestone, to be etched in the legal history of India; the balance of
power in India has been changing at a gradual pace – people, who are the asset and makers of a
nation as a whole are finally rightfully getting a power that they deserved; and the government and
other powerful entities are having to distribute and disclose the source of.