Section 4 – THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005

—(/) Every public authority shall—
(a) maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a maimer and the form which
facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be
computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerised and
connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records
is facilitated;
(b) publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,—
(i) the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties;
(ii) the powers and duties of its officers and employees;
(iii) the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision
and accountability;
(iv) the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions;
(v) the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or
used by its employees for discharging its functions;
(vi) a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control;
(vii) the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by,
the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof
(viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or
more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of
those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such
meetings are accessible for public;
(ix) a directory of its officers and employees;
(x) the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the
system of compensation as provided in its regulations;
(xi) the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed
expenditures and reports on disbursements made;
(xii) the maimer of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and
the details of beneficiaries of such programmes;
(xiii) particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it;
(xiv) details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic
form;
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(xv) the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the
working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use;
(xvi) the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers;
(xvii) such other information as may be prescribed;
and thereafter update these publications every year;
(c) publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions
which affect public;
(d) provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons.
(2) It shall be a constant endeavour of every public authority to take steps in accordance with the
requirements of clause (b) of sub-section (1) to provide as much information suo.’notu to the public at
regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet, so that the public have
minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information.
(3) For the purposes of sub-section (1), every information shall be disseminated widely and in such
form and manner which is easily accessible to the public.
(4) All materials shall be disseminated taking into consideration the cost effectiveness, local language
and the most effective method of communication in that local area and the information should be easily
accessible, to the extent possible in electronic fomrnt with the Central Public Information Officer or State
Public Information Officer, as the case may be, available free or at such cost of the medium or the print
cost price as may be prescribed.
Explanation.—For the purposes of sub-sections (3) and (4), “disseminated” means making known or
communicated the information to the public through notice boards, newspapers, public announcements,
media broadcasts, the internet or any other means, including inspection of offices of any public authority.