RTI AND PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL)

AUTHORS – GIRISH C B*, VIJENDRA ARUMUGAM S* & DR. SAJI SIVAN S**

* STUDENTS VITSOL, CHENNAI

** ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, VITSOL, CHENNAI

BEST CITATION – GIRISH C B, VIJENDRA ARUMUGAM S & DR. SAJI SIVAN S, RTI AND PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL), INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (5) OF 2025, PG. 76-88, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344

ABSTRACT:

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, and Public Interest Litigation (PIL) have become powerful instruments within India’s legal and democratic landscape for promoting transparency, accountability, and judicial activism. The following research paper examines the relationship between RTI applications and PILs, and RTI disclosures serve as first-order evidence in public litigations. The paper also analyses landmark case laws, where PILs, supported by RTI, have resulted in meaningful changes in constitutional law and public policy.

RTI has endeavoured to put power into the hands of citizens to demonstrate corruption, environmental degradation, and electoral wrongdoing, but ineffective legal and bureaucratic mechanisms impede practical use of RTI. The RTI Act’s provisions under Section 8 and continual denial of information, slow responses, and intimidation of RTI advocates all inhibit the use of First Evidence through RTI in litigation. The paper reviews the judiciary’s response to the challenges outlined above and cites the case of CBI v. CIC (2019) and precedent, principles of transparency, and limits of privacy, among others.

Finally, to bolster the RTI-PIL intersection, the authors suggest reforming the RTI Act with whistleblower protection, digitizing the RTI request processes, and creating accelerated processing of PILs. In conclusion, while RTI-PILs enhance accountability in a democracy, ongoing legal reforms are needed in the institutions that serve to further RTI as First Order Evidence, since it cannot be assumed that the right to information will lead to judicial loss or gain.