{"id":47746,"date":"2025-05-12T12:45:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T07:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=47746"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:37:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T07:07:18","slug":"right-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/right-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Right to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Right to Know Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Recently, the Supreme Court of India quashed a Delhi High Court order that had directed the Wikimedia Foundation (which hosts Wikipedia) to remove a user-created page and associated discussion.<\/p>\n<h2>Supreme Court\u2019s Observations<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The ruling reaffirmed that the\u00a0<strong>\u201cRight to Know\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0is a\u00a0<strong>basic right<\/strong>\u00a0under\u00a0<strong>Article 19(1)(a)<\/strong>\u00a0(Freedom of Speech and Expression) and\u00a0<strong>Article 21<\/strong>\u00a0(Right to Life and Personal Liberty).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Significance of the \u201cRight to Know\u201d<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Right to Know<\/strong>\u00a0is essential to enable citizens to:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Participate in public discourse and democratic processes<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Access justice<\/strong>\u00a0effectively, and<\/li>\n<li>Hold public authorities\u00a0<strong>accountable<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The judgment reinforced that\u00a0<strong>public discussion and criticism of courts<\/strong>\u00a0is a\u00a0<strong>legitimate aspect of democracy<\/strong>\u00a0and must not be equated with contempt without careful consideration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Constitutional Significance of the Right to Know<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Under Article 19(1)(a) \u2013 Freedom of Speech and Expression:\u00a0<\/strong>This article ensures the\u00a0<strong>right to express opinions<\/strong>\u00a0through speech, writing, and other media. As per the\u00a0<strong>Supreme Court<\/strong>, this includes the\u00a0<strong>Right to Know<\/strong>\u00a0about:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Government activities<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Public decision-making<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Court proceedings<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Court reiterated that\u00a0<strong>freedom of expression<\/strong>\u00a0covers the\u00a0<strong>right to receive information<\/strong>, which is vital for\u00a0<strong>democracy<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Under Article 21 \u2013 Right to Life and Personal Liberty:\u00a0<\/strong>The\u00a0<strong>Right to Know<\/strong>\u00a0is also implicit in\u00a0<strong>Article 21<\/strong>, as it enables citizens to:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Access justice<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Participate in governance<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Live with dignity<\/strong>\u00a0through informed decision-making<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Supreme Court<\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0<strong>Menaka Gandhi Case (1978)<\/strong>\u00a0expanded Article 21 to include a\u00a0<strong>broad range of rights<\/strong>, now including access to truthful public information:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Right to live with dignity<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right to livelihood<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right to privacy<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right to shelter<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right to a clean environment<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Right to information<\/strong>\u00a0(including\u00a0<strong>Right to Know<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Right to Know FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1:\u00a0<\/strong>What is the \u2018Right to Know\u2019 in India?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0The Right to Know is an implicit part of the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, empowering citizens to access public information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2:\u00a0<\/strong>Which Act operationalised the Right to Know in India?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 formalised this right, allowing citizens to demand transparency and accountability from public authorities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/editorial\/right-to-know-on-the-wikimedia-case-key-rights\/article69564204.ece#:~:text=The%20right%20to%20know%20and,while%20trying%2C%20under%20trial.%E2%80%9D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Right to Know is an implicit part of the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, empowering citizens to access public information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[474],"class_list":{"0":"post-47746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-right-to-know","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}