Power of the RTI Act

Chandravati, a resident of Sangam Vihar had applied for a caste certificate for her daughter in 2007. Submitting the caste certificate in her daughter’s school would enable her to avail of a fee waiver. Despite numerous visits to the Government office, there was no sign of the certificate even 2 years after her initial application.

Chandravati learned about the RTI Act at one of SNS’s weekly community meetings in Sangam Vihar. Inspired by stories of people who had successfully used the RTI Act to get their rightful entitlements from the Government, she sought assistance from SNS to file an RTI application seeking information about her daughter’s caste certificate.

She filed her RTI application in July 2009 and within a few days; an official from the department visited her house and informed her that the application she had made for the caste certificate had been lost. The official encouraged her to re-apply for the certificate and not seek information under the RTI Act. Undeterred, she told him that since it was the fault of the department that her application had been lost she would not reapply since applying again would involve considerable costs of making a new affidavit, travelling to the department etc.. She informed him that she would wait for a written response to her RTI application from the Department.

Under pressure to provide information in reply to her RTI application, the department official brought her a new form and got an affidavit made at his expense. Within 3 days, he delivered the caste certificate at her door-step.