J&K Right to Information Act

The Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009
An Act to provide for setting out the regime of right to information for the people of the State to secure access to information under the control of public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a State Information Commission and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Citation	Act No. VIII of 2009
Territorial extent	State of Jammu and Kashmir
Enacted by	Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature
Date enacted	20-03-2009
Date assented to	20-03-2009
Date commenced	20-03-2009
Legislative history
First reading	Mushtaq Reshi

The Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 came into force on 20 March 2009, repealing and replacing the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2004 and the Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2008. The Act is based closely upon the Central Right to Information Act, 2005. Like all RTI legislation, it is intended to provide citizens of the state of Jammu and Kashmir with a legal mandate mechanism for obtaining government records.

The Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2004, was enacted on 7 January 2004. The Rules to the Act were issued on June 30, 2005.

The enactment of this Act came within the larger context of the Right to Information movement in India, which resulted in the passage of several state-level RTI Acts across India, including Tamil Nadu (1997), Goa (1997), Rajasthan (2000), Karnataka (2000), Delhi (2001), Maharashtra (2002), Madhya Pradesh (2003), Assam (2002) and Jammu and Kashmir (2004). The movement culminated in the passage of the (Central) Right to Information Act, 2005, which was partially intended to supersede the various state-level Acts. Furthermore, the (Central) RTI Act, 2005 enshrines stronger provisions than those seen in the individual state-level Acts.

As such, the (Central) RTI Act, 2005 applies to the Union Government of India and all of its states and territories, but not to the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Jammu & Kashmir is accorded special provisions under Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which exempts most legislation passed in the Parliament of India from automatically applying to the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Instead, under the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir, the state's own Legislative Assembly has the option of (a) voting to "extend" a Union Act to its own state using a special legislative procedure, (b) voting to enact a state-specific law of its own using the traditional state-level drafting process, or (c) simply ignoring the Union Act altogether.

...
Wikipedia