Dear all,

I am reporting on two trend-setting decisions that have issued from the Central Information Commission in the last few months. There are other important decisions as well but I have chosen these because of the commonality of the themes in both cases. The Central Information Commission has issued recommendations to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Central Government for creating spaces for public consultation on draft Bills and draft rules and regulationsbefore they are approved by the respective Cabinets and introduced in the respective legislatures. Unless challenged in court, this is now a mandatory requirement under Section 4(1)(c) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act).

Section 4(1)(c) of the RTI Act states:

    "Every Public authority shall:

    X    X    X

    publish all relevant fact while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public"

We tested these provisions in the context of two draft laws, namely, the draft Delhi Police (Amendment) Bill, 2010 and the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making Disclosure Bill 2010, also known as the Whistleblower Bill tabled inParliament recently.

These decisions establish two important principles:

1) that while formulating draft legislation government departments must place such Bills in the public domain to encourage public consultation; and

2) that papers that are not actually drawn up for submission to the Cabinet but are in the preparatory stage involving consultation within or between ministries and departments are not automatically entitled to the exemption given to Cabinet papers under Section 8(1)(i). However they may be withheld under the exemption related to Cabinet papers or on grounds of parliamentary privilege after they have been approved by the Cabinet.