Right to Information Act, 2005 Chapter I

(1) This Act may be called the Right to Information Act, 2005.

(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

(3) The provisions of sub-section (1) of section 4, sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 5, sections 12, 13, 15,16, 24 , 27 and 28 shall come into force at once, and the remaining provisions of this Act shall come into force on the one hundred and twentieth day of its enactment.";

In this Act, unless the contextotherwise requires,--

(a) "appropriate Government"means in relation to a public authority which is established, constituted,owned, controlled or substantially financed by funds provided directly orindirectly--

(i) by the Central Government or theUnion territory administration, the Central Government;

(ii) by the State Government, the StateGovernment;

(b) "Central InformationCommission" means the Central Information Commission constituted undersub-section (1) of section 12;

(c) "Central Public InformationOfficer" means the Central Public Information Officer designated undersub-section (1) and includes a Central Assistant Public Information Officerdesignated as such under sub-section (2) of section 5;

(d) "Chief InformationCommissioner" and "Information Commissioner" means the ChiefInformation Commissioner and Information Commissioner appointed undersub-section (3) of section 12;

(e) "competent authority"means--

(i) the Speaker in the case of theHouse of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a State or a Union territoryhaving such Assembly and the Chairman in the case of the Council of States of aLegislative Council of States;

(ii) the Chief Justice of India in thecase of the Supreme Court;

(iii) the Chief Justice of the HighCourt in the case of a High Court;

(iv) the President or the Governor, asthe case may be, in the case of other authorities established or constituted byor under the Constitution;

(v) the administrator appointed underarticle 239 of the Constitution;

(f) "information" means anymaterial in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions,advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports,papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form andinformation relating to any private body which can be accessed by a publicauthority under any other law for the time being in force;

(g) "prescribed" meansprescribed by rules made under this Act by the appropriate Government or thecompetent authority, as the case may be;

(h) "public authority" meansany authority or body or institution of self-government established orconstituted,--

(a) by or under the Constitution;

(b) by any other law made byParliament;

(c) by any other law made by StateLegislature;

(d) by notification issued or ordermade by the appropriate Government, and includes any--

(i) body owned, controlled orsubstantially financed;

(ii) non-Government organisationsubstantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by theappropriate Government; (i) "record" includes--

(i) any document, manuscript and file;

(ii) any microfilm, microfiche andfacsimile copy of a document;

(iii) any reproduction of image orimages embodied in such microfilm (whether enlarged or not); and

(iv) any other material produced by acomputer or any other device;

(j) "right to information"means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by orunder the control of any public authority and includes the right to--

(i) inspection of work, documents,records;

(ii) taking notes, extracts, orcertified copies of documents or records;

(iii) taking certified samples ofmaterial;

(iv) obtaining information in the formof diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic modeor through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in anyother device;

(k) "State InformationCommission" means the State Information Commission constituted undersub-section (1) of section 15;

(l) "State Chief Information Commissioner"and "State Information Commissioner" mean the State Chief InformationCommissioner and the State Information Commissioner appointed under sub-section(3) of section 15;

(m) "State Public InformationOfficer" means the State Public Information Officer designated undersub-section (1) and includes a State Assistant Public Information Officerdesignated as such under sub-section (2) of section 5.

(n) "third party" means aperson other than the citizen making a request for information and includes apublic authority.