The Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) is an Act of the
Parliament of India "to provide for setting out the practical regime of
right to information for citizens." The Act applies to all States and
Union Territories of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and
Kashmir has its own act called Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act,
2009.
Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from
a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of
State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.
The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for
wide dissemination and to pro-actively publish certain categories of
information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for
information formally.
This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and
came fully into force on 12 October 2005.Information disclosure in India
was hither to restricted by the Official Secrets Act 1923 and various other
special laws, which the new RTI Act now relaxes.