The underlining philosophy of the RTI Act is to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every ‘public authority’ and thereby strengthen and deepen participatory democracy. In this book, M.L. Sharma outlines the global perspective of the Right to Information, traces its genesis and evolution in India and insightfully analyses the Act in the light of case law. The book contains the ratio of 29 judgments of the Supreme Court of India; 374 judgments of various High Courts; and 156 decisions of the Central Information Commission, along with the citations for reference purposes. The author has also legally critiqued the Act and given valuable suggestions for amending and fine-tuning it, apart from giving an overview of its implementation on the ground. This book would prove useful and handy for RTI litigants and activists; Public Information Officers, First Appellate Authorities and Information Commissioners; law students and the lay readers in general.

M. L. Sharma was Central Information Commissioner from 2008 to 2013. During his tenure, he decided over 11,000 Second Appeals. As a Member of the Full Bench of the CIC, he authored many important decisions, including the decision holding the Political Parties to be ‘public authority’ under the RTI Act. With a distinguished career in the Indian Police Service from 1972 to 2008, Sharma is the recipient of the Police Medal for Meritorious Services and the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services. During a challenging and illustrious tenure of 18 years in three spells in the CBI, where he rose to the position of Special Director, Sharma had the opportunity to handle some of the most complicated and delicate cases. Sharma is at present a legal consultant and runs the law firm “Sharma & Vardhan Associates” in Delhi.