Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi orders strict RTI compliance, directs departments to put mandatory disclosures online

Chandigarh, September 1: Haryana Chief Secretary Sh. Anurag Rastogi has directed all Administrative Secretaries and Heads of Departments to ensure strict and continuous compliance with Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, directing every public authority under their control to proactively disclose prescribed information on official websites and keep it readily accessible to citizens.

The directions follow the Haryana State Information Commission's order dated June 22, 2026, in Complaint Case No. 603 of 2024 under Section 18(2) of the RTI Act. The Chief Secretary's Organisation, General Administration Department, Administrative Reforms Branch, issued the instructions on August 27, 2026.

The directive leaves little room for departments to treat RTI disclosures as a formality. It specifically requires public authorities to upload all information mandated for suo motu disclosure under Section 4 on their respective official websites and ensure that it is easily accessible to the general public.

The departments have further been told that the information cannot simply be uploaded and forgotten. It must be periodically reviewed, updated and maintained in a timely manner, ensuring continuous compliance with the RTI Act and instructions issued by competent authorities.

The State Information Commission's order had underlined the statutory responsibility of public authorities to maintain transparency and proactively disseminate information so that citizens have minimum resort to the formal RTI mechanism.