(3) where arequest is rejected under sub-section (2), the public information officer shall communicate to the person making request,— (i) the reasons for such rejection; (ii) the period within which an appeal against such rejections may be preferred; (iii) the particulars of the appellate authority , (4) information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question § (1) notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, the following information not being information relating to any matter referred to in sub-section (2), shall beexempted 10 from disclosure, namely:—  exemption from disclosure of information (a) 'information, the disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the ~ sovereignty and integrity of india, security of the state, strategic scientific or economic interest of india or conduct of international relations; (b) information, the disclosure of which would prejudicially affect public safety 15 and order, detection and investigation of an offence or which may lead to an incitement to commit an offence or prejudicially affect fair trial or adjudication of a pending case; : (c) information, the disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the conduct of centre-state relations, including information exchanged in confidence between 20 the central and state governments or any of their authorities or agencies;  (d) cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the council of ministers, secretaries and other officers; (e) minutes or records of advice including legal advice, opinions or recommendations made by any officer of a public authority during the decision making 25 process prior to the executive decision or policy formulation; (f) trade or commercial secrets protected by law or information, the disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the legitimate economic and commercial interests or the competitive position of a public authority; or would cause unfair gain or loss to any person; and 30 (g) information, the disclosure of which may result in the breach of privileges of parliament or the legislature of a state, or contravention of a lawful order of a court _ (2) any information relating to any occurrence, event or matter which has taken place occurred or happened twenty-five years before the date on which any request is made under 35 section 6 shall be provided to any person making a request under that section: provided that where any question arises as to the date from which the said period of twenty-five years has to be computed, the decision of the central government shall be final 9, without prejudice to the provisions of section 8, a public information officer may 40 reject a request for information also where such request— | grounds    | for    ||------------|--------|| refusal    | to     || access     | in     || certain    | cases |(a) is too general in nature or is of such a nature that, having regard to the volume of information required to be retrieved or processed would involve disproportionate diversion of the resources of a public authority or would adversely interfere with the functioning of such authority: - 45 provided that where such request is rejected on the gfound that the request is too general, it would be the duty of the public information officer to render help as far as possible to the person making request to reframe his request in such a manner as may facilitate compliance with it; (8) relates to information that is required by law, rules, regulatiotis or orders to ° be published at a particular time and such information is likely to be so published 5 within thirty days of the receipt of such request; or public; (¢) relates to information that is contained in published material available to of any person, (d) relates to information which would cause unwarranted invasion of thé privacy : 10 10 if a request for access to information is rejected on the ground that it is idrelation to information which is exempted from disclosure, then notwithstanding anythingcontained in this act, access may be given to that part of the record which does -not obtain any information that is exempted from disclosure under this act and which can teasonably be severed from any part that contains exempted information : 15 11 where a public authority intends to disclose information on a request made by a party which relates to, or has been supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, the public information officer shall by notice to such third party invite tepresentation against the proposed disclosure, if any, within fifty days from the date of receipt of such notice:  ! possible harm or injury to the interests of such third party 25 prescribed:  12 (/) any person aggrieved by a decision of the public information officer may, within thirty days of receipt of such decision, prefer an appeal to such authority as may be provided that such authority may entertain the appeal after the expiry of the said period of thirty days if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal in time (2) a second appeal against the decision under sub-section (/) shall lie within thirty 30 days of such decision, to the central government or the state government or the competent authority, as the case may be: provided that the central government or the state government or the competent authority, as the case may be, may entertain the appeal after the expiry of the said period of 35 the appeal in-time thirty days if it is satisfied that the appellant wag prevented by sufficient cause from filing (3) the appeals referred to in sub-sections (/), and (2) shall be disposed of within thirty days of the receipt of such appeals or within such extended period, as the case may be, for reasons to be recorded in writing, (4) if the decision of the public information officer against which the appeal is 40 preferred under sub-section (j) or (2) also relates to information of third party, the appellate authority shall give a reasonable opportunity of being heard to that third party,  chapter ii miscellaneous13 no suit, prosecution or, other legal proceeding shall lie against any person for 45 anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this act or any rule made thereunder, 19 of 1923, : 14, the provisions of official secrets act, 1923, and every other act in force shall act cease to be operative to the extent to which they are inconsistent with the provisions of this severability : third party information appeals \ | protection    | of     ||---------------|--------|| action        |        || taken         |        || in            |        || 200d          | faith, || act           |        || to            |        || have          |        || }             |        || overriding    |        || i             |        || effect       |        || :             |        |bar of 45 no court shall entertain any suit, application or other proceeding in respect of jurisdiction of any order made under this act and no such order shall be called in question otherwise than cours by-way of an appeal under this act act not to 16 (1) nothing contained in this act,— apply to  certain (a) shall apply to the intelligence and security organisations, specified in the 5 organisations schedule being organisations established by the ceniral or a state government of any information furnished by such organisations to the respective governments; (b) shall until part b of the schedule is amended under sub-section (2), apply to the intelligence and security organisations by whatever name called discharging their functions as such under the state governments 10 (2) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, amend the schedule by including therein any other intelligence or security organisation established by the central or a state government or omitting therefrom any organisation already specified therein and on the publication of such notification, such organisation shall be deemed to be included iin or, as the case 'nay be, omitted from the schedule 15 (3) every notification issued under sub-section (2), shall be laid before each house of parliament  power to make ~ £7 cd) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make ules by ° —_rulesto carry out the provisions of this act central -  government (2) in particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such 20 rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:— {a) intervals at which matters referred toin sub-clauses (7) to (vi) of clause (b) of section 4 shall be published; (b) the fee payable under sub-section () ef section 7; (c) the authority before whom an appeal may be preferred under sub-section (1) 25 of section 12;  (d) any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed power make 48 (1) the state government may, by notification in the official gazette, make ree oe rules to carry out the provisiéns of this act (2) in particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such 30 rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:—  (a) the fee payable under sub-section () of section 7; (b) the authority beforé whom an appeal may be preferred under sub-section () of section 12; (o) any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed: ~ 35 provided that initially the rules shall be made by the central government by notification in the official gazette ' rule making "49, (2) the competent authority may, by notification in the official gazette, make + power by rules to carry out the provisions of this act competent authority (2) in particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such 40 rules may provide for all or any of the following matters, namely:— (a) the fee payable under sub-section (1) of section 7; () the authority before whom an appeal may be preferred under sub-section (2) of section 12; (c) any other matter which is required to be, or may be, prescribed 20 (1) every rule made by the central government under this act shall be laid, as laying of 5 soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for rules a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter 10 have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of any- thing previously done under that rule, (2) every rule made under this act by a state government shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is notified, before the state legislature, 15 21 (/) if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the central: power to government may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions not remove inconsistent with the provisions of this act as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for _'ifficulties removal of the difficulty: provided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of a period of two years 20 from the date of the commencement of this act _ (2) evey ordex made under this section shall, as soon as may be after it is made, be laid before the houses of parliament  the schedule (see section 16)25 parta  intelligence and security organisations established by the central government1 intelligence bureau 2 research and analysis wing of the cabinet secre(ariat ~ 3 directorate of revenue intelligence 30 4, central economic intelligence bureau 5 directorate of enforcement 6, narcotics control bureau  , partb ; intelligence and security organisations established by the state government35 name of the organisation name of the state 1 2, 3 the dto eriaét a law on right to information was recognized unanimously by the chief ministers conference on "bifective and responsive government" held on 24th may, 1997 at delhi, in its 38th report relating to demands for grants of the ministry of : pérsonn lic grievances and pension, the parliamentary standing committee on home "affairs recommended that the'government should take measures for enactment of such a : degislation: ; 2 in-order to make the government more transparent, and accountable to the public, the government of india appointed a working group on right to information and promotion _ of open andtransparent-government under the chairmanship of shri h d shourie the working gr up was asked ta examine the feasibility and néed for either full-fledged right to information act 'or its introduction in a phased manner to meet the needs of open and " responsive governance and alsoto examine the frame work of rules with reference to the givil service (conduct) rules atid:manual of office procedure, the said working group submitted: its report in may, 1997 along with a draft freedom of information bill to the "7 <" government: the working group also recommended suitable amendments to the civil  service (conduct) rules: and the manual of departmental security instructions with a view to bring them in harmony with the proposed bill : 3 the draft bill submited by the working group was subsequently deliberated by : the group of ministers constituted by the central government to ensure that free flow of information was available to the public, while, inter alia, protecting the national interest; " _sovereignty and integrity of india, and friendly relations 'with foreign states 4 the proposed bill is in accord with both article 19 of the constitution as well as article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights 5 in our present democratic frame work, free flow of information for the citizens 'cand non-government institutions suffers from several bottlenecks including the existing legal frame work, lack of infrastructure at the grass,root levels and an attitude of secrecy within thecivil service as a result df the old frame work of rules the government proposes  to deal with all these aspécts in a phased manner so that the freedom of information act -became a reality consistent with the objective of havirig a stable, honest, transparent and +: "@fficient government 6 the proposed bill will enable the citizens to have an access to information on a  statutory basis with a view to further this objective, clause 3 of the proposed bill specifies that 'subject to the provisions of this act, every citizen shall have right to freedom of information obligation is cast upon every public authority under clause 4 to provide information and to maintain all records consistent with its operational requirements duly catalogued, indexed and published af such intervals as may be prescribed by the'appropriate government or the competent authority : 7 the bill seeks to achieve the above objects _ new delhi; ; vasundhara raje 'the 15th may, 2000 :  president's recommendation under article 117 of the - constitution of india(copy of letter no 3401 1/1(s)/97-estt(b) dated 15th may, 2000 from mrs vasundhara raje, minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pension to the secretary-general, lok sabha)" : ; ; 'the president, having been informéd,of the subject matter of "the freedom of information bill,-2000", recommends the introduction and consideration of the said bill in the lok sabha under article 117(1) and (3) of the constitution  financial memorandum1 sub-clause 1 of clause 5 of the bill provides for appointment of one or more officers as public information officers to deal with requests for information it is expected that the various agencies would be appointing some of their existing officers as the public the various agencies at the central and state level, all within the existing budget 2 at this stage, it is not possible to give precise details of the expenditure to be incurred on material resources in terms of computers and other office equipment required for supply of information however, the requirement of these items is likely to be met by the ongoing programmes for computerization of operations in various agencies and any additional expenditure might be offset by recovery of fees for supply of information, 3 after the proposed bill becomes an act, a nodal cell for finalization of rules and instructions, guiding the states and reporting progress to government shall have to be set up in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions under the central government this cell shall consist of one joint secretary, two deputy secretaries, two senior analysts and two conventional sections in addition, the personal staff of the above officers will also be appointed an estimated recurring expenditure of rs 28 lakhs is likely to be incurred on the salaries of the officers and staff in the cell 4 the bill does not involve any other recurring or non-recurring expenditure,  memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 16(2) of the bill empowers the central government, by notification in the official gazette, to amend the schedule for including any other intelligence or security organisation established by the central or state government or omit therefrom any organisation already specified therein clause 17 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules to carry out the provisions of the act sub-clause (2) of that clause enumerates the matters with respect to which rules may be made under -this clause », these matters relate to, inter alia, the imtervals at which particulars of organisation, functions and duties of its officers, details of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information in such organisation; fee payable to obtain an information from an organisation; the authority to be p-escribed before whom an appeal may be preferred from the decision of public information officer and any other matter which is required to be prescribed clause 18 of the bill empowers the state government to make rules fo carry out the provisions of the act the matters inrespect of which such rules may be made are specified therein these niatters relate to, inter alia, the fee payable to obtain information from any organisation; the authority to be prescribed before whom an appeal may be preferred against the decision of the public information officer and any other matter which is required to be prescribed clause 19 of the bill empowers the competent authority to make rules to carry out the provisions of the act these matters relate to, inter alia, the fee payable for obtaining the information from the public information officer of an organisation; the authority t6 be - prescribed before whom an appeal may be preférred against the decision of the public informationofficer and any other matter which is required to be prescribed clause 21 of the bill empowers the central government by order to remove certain difficulties which may appear to it to be necessary or expedient further, such order shall not be made under this clause after the expiry of a period of two years from the commencement of this act every such order shall be laid before both houses of parliament the matters in respect of which rules may be made are matters of administrative details and procedure and, it is not practicable to provide for them in the bill itself the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character 