Focus on revision of Section 7 of RTI Act

FE Report
Speakers at a roundtable Thursday called for revision of Section 7 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2009, as it is often misused to rein in flow of information.
Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI), in partnership with Manusher Jonno Foundation, organised the roundtable on Section 7 of the RTI Act at a hotel in Khulna.
Chief Information Commissioner Mohammed Farooq was present as the chief guest at the programme.
Divisional Commissioner of Khulna Abdul Jalil, Information Commission Secretary Farhad Hossain, and Additional Police Commissioner of Khulna Metropolitan Police Mahbub Hakim attended it as special guests.
Adviser Programme Operations of MRDI and former secretary of Information Commission Nepal Chandra Sarker presented the keynote paper. MRDI executive director Hasibur Rahman Mukur moderated the programme.
The roundtable has been organised as part of divisional-level programmes to remove barriers to information, assess people's attitude, identify limitations of Section 7, and recommend ways to address the limitations.
In his paper Nepal Chandra Sarker presented a comparative analysis of Section 7 with Article 39(2) of Bangladesh constitution, international charter on right to information, and exemptions of right to information laws of some influential countries of the world.
He recommended that some sub-sections of Section 7 can be kept unchanged, but some others need realignment, revision or even removal. Mentioning misuse of the additional conditions of Section 7(t), he proposed to revise those.
Mohammed Farooq in his speech said many of the designated officers are trying to create barriers to providing information using Section 7 as an excuse.
 "We have found such incidents in the Information Commission's hearing. However, the commission has passed orders to provide information in most of the cases. Scope of misuse of Section 7 will reduce, if it is specified as per requirement through revision," he said.