Press Release
NCPRI & IM4C Consultation on Pre-Legislative Processes and Amendment to RTI Rules

22 December 2010: The National Campaign for Peoples
Right to Information (NCPRI), in collaboration with Inclusive Media for
Change and others, organized a meeting on the pre-legislative
consultation process. Members of civil society organizations——CHRI,
PRS, JOSH, ADR, FMP, SNS, CPR, Pardarshita, Sangat, Hazards Centre,
NFIW, Greenpeace and others participated in the discussion. Former CIC
Wajahat Habibullah, retired chief justice A P Shah of the Delhi High
Court and social activists——Aruna Roy, Shekhar Singh, Dunu Roy, Annie
Raja, Nikhil Dey, Kamla Bhasin, Maja Daruwala, Venkatesh Nayak, Lokesh
Batra participated in the consultation. Members from the media also
participated in the discussion.

Pre-Legislative Consultation Process

There was a general agreement that the absence of any secure and
robust mechanisms of pre-legislative consultation is one of the weaker
links of our political and policy process that requires to be
redressed. Therefore there was an appreciation of the present
initiative and a mandate to take it forward.

There was a general appreciation of the suggestions made in the
approach paper (attached). Besides, the following additional
suggestions came up:

1. Need to link existing institutions like the NHRC, NMC, SC
Commission, NWC etc. with the proposed consultative process so as to
avoid duplication
2. We should focus not just on disclosures and opening for giving
inputs, but also on mandatory deliberations that ensure that these
inputs get due attention.
3. Need to pay equal attention to subsidiary legislation and the rule
framing at the level of the states, for that is where much of the
tinkering takes place.
4. Certain kinds of legislations should be referred to the local
bodies set up under the 73rd and 74th amendments.

It was further suggested:

• There should be a provision for referendum for a certain types of
legislation keeping in mind the social realities that define the
day-to-day lives of a diverse population like that of India.
• Interests of various sections of society affected by laws and
lawmaking procedures should be kept in mind while making these
legislations.
• All such legislations need to be supplemented by some changes in the
existing legislative process, like sharing more information with the
MPs, adding research capacity of the MPs and MLAs, expanded time
period and improved mechanism for receiving public feedback, reducing
the tendency to bypass committees and ending procedural adhocism.

There was a brief discussion about how to give effect to these
proposals for strengthening pre-legislative consultations and there
were three broad suggestions that emerge:

1. Improving existing rules and procedures such as Parliamentary Rules
of Business, greater recourse to ‘Notes on Clauses’, amendments in
circular from Cabinet Secretariat etc.
2. Strengthening of the RTI Act 2005.
3. Perhaps even consider drafting a separate law that brings together
all such provisions.

The broad consensus was strongly in favour of a robust, open and
inclusive pre-legislative consultation process. These discussions will
be taken forward in forums and meetings to be convened over the next
few months. It was agreed that multiple methods would be used to open
up the process like demanding rigorous implementation of mandatory
provisions of the RTI Act, i.e., Section 4 and seeking changes to
DoPT/PMO circulars to allow for consultations on proposed legislations
along the lines of the existing inter-ministerial consultations.