RTI activists in Gujarat fear bans, FIRs, getting bumped off by mafia

According to data by Mahiti Adhikar Manch, an Ahmedabad-based organisation that raises awareness regarding RTI in the state, less than 45 per cent of the RTIs filed in Gujarat since 2019 have received a response.

Added to that, less than 10 per cent filed reappeals owing to frequent cases of intimidation and violence against RTI activists across the state.

RTI roadblocks

Pankti Jog, the coordinator of Mahiti Adhikar Manch, told The Federal: “As per section 27 of the RTI, 2005 Act, state governments are given powers to frame rules for the implementation of the Act. Though Gujarat is one of the first states that framed the rules, the Act is not properly implemented in the state at all.”

There are several “roadblocks” which prevent the proper implementation of this law, said Jog. What compounds the problem is the issue of the safety of RTI activists, which is a “major cause of concern”.

“FIRs against RTI activists is common in Gujarat. Even if they fight the intimidation from the state machinery they are vulnerable at the hands of people against whom they file RTIs,” she added.

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Arrests and intimidation

Amit Mehta, an RTI activist based out of Surat, was arrested by the city police on March 4 after an FIR was lodged against him for ‘using RTI to extort’. The police action against Mehta comes a month after he had filed an RTI seeking information against an illegal construction on government land in Surat’s Rander area.

In another similar incident, Surat police registered an FIR against four local journalists, accusing them of ‘extorting municipal officers’, after they sought information regarding illegal construction through RTIs between September and December 2024.

The FIR against the four was filed on February 20 at the behest of Arvind Rana, the BJP MLA from Surat East constituency.

Target of builders

Ajay Jangid, a Surat-based RTI activist, told The Federal that a "majority" of the RTI applications filed in Surat are regarding "illegal constructions which is a major problem here".

"But the builder, sand mafia and state administration nexus don’t want any interruption in the well-oiled corrupt system. If a complaint is filed on basis of a RTI application, the person becomes a target of the builders. But most often, the application is dismissed and the person is under police scanner for just filing an RTI,” said Jangid.

“In August 2022, RTI activist Sadakat Wadiwala was shot in broad daylight and six days later he succumbed to injuries. He was only 32 at the time. His relentless work had resulted in shutting down three illegal constructions on gauchar (pastoral) land in rural Surat,” Jangid said.

Months ahead of his murder, Wadiwala was the subject of an investigation launched by the CID (Crime Detection Department) of Gujarat. Wadilwala was one of the 300 RTI activists, who were issued summons in April 2022, to investigate how they used the information they received under the RTI Act.

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Blacklisted for life

“The investigation ended in August the same year with the blacklisting of 10 RTI activists for life,” said Harinesh Pandya, a veteran RTI activist and the founder of Mahiti Adhikar Manch.

“It was an unprecedented move by the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC), which stated in a notification that the individuals were being banned from filing RTI for harassing officials by repeated RTI queries. This was in complete violation of the RTI Act, 2005 that has no provision to blacklist anyone,” pointed out Pandya.

Apart from the 10 activists, the GIC has barred Hitesh Patel, an activist from Anand district, from filing RTI applications for five years and imposed a penalty of ₹50,000 for ‘misusing the RTI Act’.

“The GIC has directed officials of all concerned state departments to not give any information to these individuals if they file an RTI application henceforth. It is a complete mockery of the very essence of the RTI Act,” Pandya told The Federal.

'Frivolous questions'

On March 3, 2017, Gujarat BJP Chief and Union Cabinet Minister CR Patil (then MP from Navsari), had written an official letter to the Commissioner of Surat Municipal Commission asking him to not reply to RTIs since they are all “frivolous” questions in his view.

Three months after being ‘blacklisted’, one of the 10 activists, Amit Patel, based in Rajkot, was attacked by the sand mafia, injuring him and killing his son.

However, this did not stop him from reappealing seeking information about the illegal sand mining of south Gujarat. But he ended up getting ‘blacklisted’ by the GIC.

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Understaffed GIC office

To add to the woes of RTI activists, the office of the Gujarat Information Commission has been highly understaffed for over five years.

There are only three information commissioners in the state despite the provision under section 15(2)(b) of the RTI Act that allows a state government to appoint a maximum of ten information commissioners in a state.

What's critical is that between July 2024 and January 2025, the GIC was left without any commissioners after three commissioners retired in March 2024 and in June, the Chief Information Commissioner Amrut Patel followed suit.

“The circular appointing a State Information Commissioner (SIC) was issued in December 2023, but the appointment was delayed as the cabinet ministers and the Chief minister couldn’t agree on a name,” a government official from the CMO told The Federal on condition of anonymity.

Pending RTI applications

Meanwhile, the number of pending RTI applications continues to mount. “Five thousand and six hundred applications were pending till July 2024 with the SIC functioning alone since April 2024. The other three commissioners had retired in March 2024 and the positions are yet to be filled,” said the officer.

According to Harinesh Pandya, there is also a lack willingness to disclose complete information in Gujarat government offices. "Despite repeated requests to the GIC and state’s General Administration Department (GAD) many government departments and offices have not been fully disclosing information that is mandatory under Section 4 (1) (b) of the RTI Act," he asserted.

In 2010, the state government amended the RTI rules making it mandatory for submitting enquiries through e-mails to the public information officers (PIO) of the respective departments . However, the fees could not be sent through an e-payment.

“If the information seeker fails to send the application fee to the PIO within seven days of seeking the information through e-mail, the application will be considered withdrawn. Despite PM Modi’s claim of digital India, the RTI system in Gujarat has not been digitised completely making the process far less effective,” he shared.

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Rejecting RTI applications

RTI activists felt that RTI applications are rejected without any proper basis. For example, an RTI application was dismissed by the district Public Information Officer of Junagadh stating ‘the applicant was not present to inspect records’.

The RTI was filed by Rasik Chavda, activist based in the Una taluka of the district seeking information from the Foods and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) in May 2024.

Chavda told The Federal that he had received a letter on August 7, 2024, which stated that he had to appear in person at the FDCA office for record inspection.

“But the provision of the Act states that the concerned authorities have to give a written response to the applicant. The letter also stated that I had to appear within a week to clear my doubts. When I did not go to the FDCA office, they sent me a second letter on August 14 stating that my failure to appear establishes that I was not interested in receiving the information and hence application is being dismissed,” he recalled.

Banned for life

On August 31 of the same year, he received a notification from GIC stating that he was banned for life and that none of his RTI applications henceforth will be answered by any department, he said.

Chavda had learnt about the sub-standard food being supplied to the Junagadh civil hospital patients. After some initial inquiries, he found that the tender to run the canteen was awarded to the "brother-in-law of a local BJP leader". "This prompted me to file an RTI but I ended up being banned from filing RTI,” he shared.

In another case, an activist had sought information regarding the cause list of fast track courts and special courts constituted under the POCSO and Prevention of Atrocities Act in Himmatnagar. But the application was rejected and he was fined ₹10000 and banned for five years.

Farmers' suicide

In 2024, an RTI application was filed by Shailendra Jadeja seeking information about farmers suicide in Gujarat between January 2020 to January 2024.

However, the additional director general of police of Gujarat Police sent a reply stating that the CID Crime Department that handled the cases is exempted from answering the question under Section 24(4) of the Act. Under this section, the state can exempt certain government agencies from divulging information pertaining to national security.

Jadeja was also ‘blacklisted’ by the GIC in August 2024.

“I have challenged the decision in the high court. The case is due for a hearing in June this year,” Jadeja told The Federal.