Table of Contents

Prescribed

Section 2 (g)defines “prescribed” as “prescribed by rules made under this Act by the appropriate Government or the competent authority, as the case may be;”

Interpretation of Prescribed under RTI Act

The rules apply to fees, formats for applications, appeals etc. These can only be made by the appropriate Government and competent authorities mentioned in Section 2 (e).

Other Public Authorities or departments have no authority to make any rules.

It is normally accepted that regulations also cannot go beyond what is authorised, For example, rules cannot specify exempting any information, beyond what is exempted under section 8 of the RTI Act.

There is an additional view

Mendel, Toby (personal communication, May 13, 2016) suggests that it is normally accepted that regulations cannot go beyond what is authorised, either explicitly or implicitly, by the primary legislation. One cannot, via regulation, get into matters that are not within the remit of the law.