DEFINITIONS under Right to Information :

The meaning of important terms has been incorporated under section 2 of the RTI Act. These have been discussed herein below:

Public authority

“Public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self government established or constituted –

(i) By or under the Constitution;

(ii) By any other law made by Parliament;

(iii) By and other law made by State Legislature;

(iv) By notification issued or order made by the appropriate Govt. [Section 2(h)]

Record

“Record” includes –

(a) any document, manuscript and file;

(b) any microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a document;

(c) any reproduction of image or images embodied in such microfilm (whether enlarged or not); and

(d) any other material produced by a computer or any other device; [Section 2(I)]

Information

“Information” means any material 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. [Section 2(f)]

Right to information

“Right to information” means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to –

(i) taking notes, extracts, or certified copies of documents or records;

(ii) inspection of work, documents, records;

(iii) taking certified samples of material;

(iv) obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a computer or in any other device; [Section 2(j)]

Third party

“Third party” means a person other than the citizen making a request for information and includes a public authority. [Section 2(n)]