The Right to Information Act, 2005 was enacted by the Parliament of India with the basic object to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense. Under the provisions of the Act, any “citizen of India” may request information from a "public authority".
An Indian citizen who is outside India and who comes on a visit to India in any previous year will be treated as “non-resident” in India if he stays in India in that financial year less than 182 days. According to passports Act, 1967, an Indian passport is issued only to citizens of India to regulate their departure from India. And also a person must surrender his passport if he has acquired the citizenship of a foreign country. So this clearly shows that the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) are citizens of India.
But in a recent answer to a question regarding applicability of Right to Information Act, 2005 to the Non-Resident Indians, the Union Minister for State said that “Only citizens of India have the right to seek information under the provisions of Right to Information Act, 2005. Non-Resident Indians are not eligible to file RTI applications” which is totally in contravention to the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. This statement of the Union Minister for State has created a lot of confusion in the minds of the Indian citizens living abroad.
Pravasi Legal Cell approached the Ministry of External Affairs through a memorandum for timely intervention on this issue thus taking necessary steps to ensure that the non-resident Indians are not excluded from the ambit of RTI Act. But there was no response from the Ministry regarding the memorandum.
Hence, the Public Interest Litigation was filed by Pravasi Legal cell under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying for issuance of appropriate order or directions for the ministry to clarify its stand over the applicability of the Right to Information Act to the Non Residential Indians. Subsequently the Hon’ble High court of Delhi issued notice to Government in this regard.

свернуть