Personal information to be out of RTI purview

New Delhi: From now, personal details about a person may not be made available on an application filed under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) even if such information holds public interest.

The draft of the the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, has incorporated necessary provisions in this regard.

The provision grants vast powers to public information officers to reject RTI applications on the ground that they involve disseminating personal details.

Section 8.1 (j). of the Right to Information Act, 2005, has been amended in order to give effect to the clause. The draft said,“The disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information” shall be omitted.”

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is making revisions to the RTI Act's information-sharing clauses for the first time. The RTI Act's provisions regarding the appointment and compensation of information commissioners were revised by the government in 2019 by granting it the authority to determine the commissioners' terms of office and salary.