“Recent amendments to the Right to Information Act will have profound impact on the autonomy and independence of the Information Commission.” Discuss. (UPSC 2020)

RTI created independent Information Commissions as watchdogs of transparency, but recent changes have weakened their autonomy.

• Executive control over service conditions: The 2019 amendment removed statutory parity of the Chief Information Commissioner and Commissioners with election commissioners. Their tenure, salary and other conditions are now set by the Central Government through rules, reducing security of tenure.
• Centralisation and access limits: The change also affects State Commissions through central rule-making, diluting federal balance. The 2023 data protection amendment widened the personal information exemption by removing the public-interest override in Section 8(1)(j), making disclosure harder.

Thus, while the Commissions continue to exist, these amendments have clearly reduced their independence and may weaken RTI’s role in democratic accountability.