Direction (Qs.1 to 7): In the given passage several blanks are given and for each blank four alternatives are provided with two words each. Choose the option from which both words can fill in the blanks to make a grammatically correct and contextually meaningful sentence. If none of the given options can fit the blank then choose option (5) ‘None of these’ as your answer.

The Right to Information Act’s role in …(1)… a more informed citizenry and an accountable government has never been in doubt ever since its implementation in 2005. But there have been persistent and growing misgivings. Section 4 of the Act calls for pro-active and voluntary …(2)… of information, but only a few Central and State institutions have published relevant information; here, Rajasthan has taken a lead through its Jan Soochna portal. The other problem has been persisting vacancies in the State and Central Information Commissions, which was raised in a plea in the Supreme Court on Monday. A three-judge Bench led by the CJI allowed the request and asked the Centre and States to …(3)… filling up the vacancies. The CJI also curiously observed that officials were sensing fear leading to paralysis of action due to the working of the RTI, going on to …(4)… that the kind of queries that were sometimes being asked were not always in public spirit and were posed by people who had no “locus standi” in the matter regarding the queries. This argument by the CJI is difficult to accept as the RTI Act …(5)… rejects the need for locus standi in Section 6(2) — “an applicant making request for information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting the information…”. This clause is present for vital reasons — seeking locus standi in order to respond to public requests could result in a chilling effect as public authorities (PAs) could choose to deny information to general citizens on subjective grounds. Besides, information commissioners and public officials have the authority to reject requests based on criteria that enable …(6)… from information disclosure. Data on RTI requests since 2005 show that the yearly rejection rate (requests rejected as a percentage of those received) has come down steadily to 4.7% in 2018-19. A change in the Act that seeks locus standi as a …(7)… could dramatically increase this number.