Published Paper Details:

Right to Information is a basic human right of every human being. The renowned French philosopher Michel Foucault once opined, power is derived from knowledge and information is the basic component of knowledge. Information changes the mentality of people and it is competent enough to cope up with the modern world. The free access to information and participation of people in government decisions develops the transformation of the governance into good governance. So, it is the duty of government to inform citizens about day to day happenings whatever within the government. The parliament of India passed the Right to information act, 2005, to foster Accountability, Transparency, Strengthens the Democratic Principles of Polity and reduces Corruption. The right to information Act 2005 is a comprehensive legislation enacted to confer statutory rights on the citizens of India for seeking information from any public authority. This has opened new vistas of governance through transparency and accountability in administration. True democracy cannot exist unless all citizens have a right to participate in the affairs of the polity of the country. The right to participate in the affairs of the country is meaningless unless the citizens are well informed on all sides of the issues in respect of which they are called upon to express their views. A successful posits an 'aware citizenry'. One sided information, disinformation, misinformation and non-information makes democracy a farce. Right to information can be used to elevate democracy to participatory democracy. This paper tries to highlight the role of RTI in good governance and some recommendations for successful functioning of RTI act.