NEW DELHI: All is not right with the Right to Information (RTI) Act in India. A recent rating of 123 countries with functional right to information laws saw the country slip to number six on the list. While it slipped by only a notch from last year, it is several rungs down the list from 2011, when the global RTI rating started. India was at number 2 then.The rating, which is under a project by Access Info Europe and the Centre for Law and Democracy, looks at how RTI laws function across countries that have introduced such a law. The list uses a 150-point scale to indicate the strengths and weaknesses of freedom of information laws around the world. The score is based on 61 indicators categorised under seven heads - right to access, scope, requesting procedure, exceptions and refusals, appeals, sanctions and protections, promotional measures.The global ratings, which started in 2011, have usually had India giving a good show: number two in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It thereafter slipped down the following year, and has now fell to number six, behind Sri Lanka, Mexico and Afghanistan, which came first this year.According to a survey of information from the annual reports of state information commissions and the CIC , there are myriad reasons for the poor show. Transparency International India, which carried out the survey, found an increasing vacancy in multiple state information commissions including the central information commission (CIC). Rama Nath Jha of TII says RTI needs "affirmative will" of the government. "Or else it will end up being the power of the powerful," added Jha. Recent attempts to make changes in the RTI Act have added to the disquiet, add activists.The vacancies are staggering across most of the state information commissions. Over 30 per cent, or 48 out of 156 total posts are vacant across the state information commissions (SICs) and the CIC. Only 12 states have filled all posts - of state chief information commissioners and information commissioners - in their commission, leading to no vacancy.Despite a push for digitisation by the government, most states are yet to make RTI accessible online. For instance, only 11 - out of a total of 29 states - have provisions for online appeals/complaints. Chhattisgarh is the only state that has updated annual reports online from 2005-2017. Also, only 10 (out of total 29) have updated their annual reports.While the government has maintained that "frivolous" RTIs add to the burden of government employees - CIC too has come down hard on some RTI applicants-the fact is that most RTIs filed are by common people to access basic information, says Jha. "Data reveals majority of the applications are not filed by activists but ordinary citizens, on having been denied legitimate rights and entitlements, hence RTI Act by and large also serves as an alternative grievance redressal mechanism."