Section Text
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.