International Journal of Commerce and Management Research

Authors
Swati Kedia

Abstract
If transparency and accountability are the imperatives for sustaining democratic governance, access to information is a vital instrument of societal transformation and the Right to Information Act, 2005 helps in achieving the same. The transformation from governance to good governance is possible, if there is possibility of increasing participation of people in governance and free access of information. By realizing this fact, Indian parliament has passed Right to information act, 2005 to make government, accountable, responsible, efficient and transparent. RTI is a powerful tool that can deliver significant social benefits. It provides a strong support to democracy and promotes good governance, by empowering the citizen’s ability to participate effectively and hold government officials accountable. Rather than just providing information, RTI Act in most of the countries has served to be an effective watchdog ensuring all those coming in purview of the Act to work in accordance with rules and regulations, without any irregularities. This paper tries to highlight the basic guidelines of RTI act, the relationship between Right to information act and good governance. And also the paper provides some challenges and recommendations for successful functioning of RTI act.