During 2020-21, the Central government ministries rejected 83 percent more Right to Information (RTI) petitions on the grounds of “national security,” despite the total rejection rate falling by 2.95 percent, according to a review of RTI applications.

Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a human rights campaigning organization, looked into the grounds for RTI applications being denied in over 2,182 departments across several central government ministries. Every ministry is required to report to the Central Information Commission on the progress of RTI petitions filed each year (CIC).

RTI applications received by central government ministries and departments in 2019-20 were 1.29 million, down 2.48 percent from the previous fiscal year. According to CIC, 13.3 million RTI applications were received in the country during this period. The ministries of health and steel saw the greatest growth in RTI requests.

According to the data, 1,024 RTI applications were rejected out of 53,537, compared to 557 the previous year on the grounds of national security.

Even though the overall rejection rate had decreased, Nayak said that the government was progressively rejecting RTI petitions under section 8 (1) of the RTI Act (exemption from providing information that could jeopardize national security). “Even the ministry of consumer affairs denied 401 applications in the pandemic year, citing national security exemption,” he said, describing the trend as “disturbing.”

Another rule linked to seeking information regarding intelligence and security agencies was used by the ministry of labor and employment to deny RTI requests. Even though the ministry has no security or intelligence agencies, this happened. According to Section 24 of the RTI Act, information from security authorities specified in the law’s schedule cannot be requested unless it is related to corruption.

During the pandemic year, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Distribution were among the ministries that used the national security exemption to deny information in hundreds of cases,” Nayak stated.

However, as in prior years, the most common reason for RTI petitions being denied was section 8 (1) J, which forbids the disclosure of personal information. In 2019-20, over 12,000 applications were turned down on this basis. “The majority of these petitions are regarding service information and inquiries into government employees,” said RTI campaigner Subhash Aggarwal.

When an RTI application is denied, the applicant has the right to appeal to the first appellate authority, which is a senior officer in the ministry or department where the application was lodged, according to the RTI Act. If the first appellate court’s decision is not satisfactory, a second appeal can be made with the CIC, the government’s transparency watchdog.

Seven ministries, including finance, defense, personnel, and education, saw a decrease in rejections, according to the data. However, several other ministries, including steel, external affairs, railroads, and health and family welfare, reported a significant increase in RTI application rejections.

The high rejection percentage in several ministries, such as steel and consumer affairs, was mostly owing to extremely few rejections the prior year, according to the research.

Using security laws to withhold information to people by authorities that aren’t directly dealing with national security matters, according to Anjali Bhardwaj of the National Campaign for Right to Information, demonstrates a reluctance to provide information. “This is a ploy to keep people from filing RTI requests on crucial topics,” she explained.