Section 25 of RTI Act : Section 25: Monitoring And Reporting

Bare Act

(1) The Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, shall, as soon as practicable after the end of each year, prepare a report on the implementation of the provisions of this Act during that year and forward a copy thereof to the appropriate Government.

(2) Each Ministry or Department shall, in relation to the public authorities within their jurisdiction, collect and provide such information to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, as is required to prepare the report under this section and comply with the requirements concerning the furnishing of that information and keeping of records for the purposes of this section.

(3) Each report shall state in respect of the year to which the report relates,

• (a) the number of requests made to each public authority;
• (b) the number of decisions where applicants were not entitled to access to the documents pursuant to the requests, the provisions of this Act under which these decisions were made and the number of times such provisions were invoked;
• (c) the number of appeals referred to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, for review, the nature of the appeals and the outcome of the appeals;
• (d) particulars of any disciplinary action taken against any officer in respect of the administration of this Act;
• (e) the amount of charges collected by each public authority under this Act;
• (f) any facts which indicate an effort by the public authorities to administer and implement the spirit and intention of this Act;
• (g) recommendations for reform, including recommendations in respect of the particular public authorities, for the development, improvement, modernisation, reform or amendment to this Act or other legislation or common law or any other matter relevant for operationalising the right to access information.

(4) The Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, may, as soon as practicable after the end of each year, cause a copy of the report of the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be, referred to in sub-section (1) to be laid before each House of Parliament or, as the case may be, before each House of the State Legislature, where there are two Houses, and where there is one House of the State Legislature before that House.

(5) If it appears to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, that the practice of a public authority in relation to the exercise of its functions under this Act does not conform with the provisions or spirit of this Act, it may give to the authority a recommendation specifying the steps which ought in its opinion to be taken for promoting such conformity.

Simplified Act

Simplified Explanation of Section 25 of The Right to Information Act, 2005

1. Every year, the Central or State Information Commission must create a report on how the Right to Information Act was followed and send it to the government.

2. Government departments must gather and provide information to the Information Commissions to help them make the report. They also need to keep records as required by this section.

3. The annual report should include:

• How many information requests were received by each public authority.
• How many requests were denied, under which parts of the Act, and how often those parts were used.
• The number of appeals made, what they were about, and what the results were.
• Details of any punishm...

Explanation using Example

Imagine a scenario where a citizen, Mr. Sharma, files a request under the Right to Information Act, 2005, to the Department of Environmental Affairs to obtain information regarding the impact of a recent industrial project on local wildlife. Mr. Sharma's request is denied under certain provisions of the Act, and he decides to appeal to the State Information Commission.

At the end of the year, the State Information Commission prepares a report as mandated by Section 25 of the RTI Act. This report includes data on the total number of RTI requests made to various public authorities, including the Department of Environmental Affairs. It also mentions the number of requests denied, the provisions cited for such denials, and the number of appeals, including Mr. Sharma’s, that were made against these decisions.

The report further details any disciplinary actions taken against officers for imprope...