Known Unknowns of RTI

After almost more than eight years of the Right to Information Act being in force, the process of accessing information still faces impediments. The flow of information is restricted either due to various public institutions not coming within the ambit of the Act or the information being exempt under various clauses of the Act. This article examines select judgments/orders of the Central Information Commission and the superior courts' exhibits to show how the exemption clauses have been utilised to camoufl age the disclosure norms including that of negating the applicability of RTI by several organisations. It also presents the contingency model for the RTI Act, 2005.