Bengal’s information commission has seen a remarkable turnaround over the past year after former director-general of police Virendra took charge as the state chief information commissioner.

A report by Delhi-based RTI watchdog Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) found that the estimated time required for disposal of an appeal or complaint came down from 24 years and one month — the highest for any state, last year — to one year and 10 months. The number of pending appeals is down from 11,871 to 7,556 on June 30
this year.

This is remarkable given that Bengal has only one other information commissioner — former additional chief secretary Naveen Prakash.

Last year’s Report Card of Information Commissions published by the SNS had said: “The West Bengal SIC has been functioning with just three commissioners despite a backlog of nearly 12,000 appeals and complaints. From June 2022 to April 2023, the work of the commission, in terms of hearing appeals/complaints, was suspended as the then chief demitted office upon attaining the age of 65 years and no new chief
was appointed.

“One month before the retirement of the chief, the secretary of the commission wrote to the government highlighting that Calcutta High Court had held that the provisions of the RTI Act require the commission to be a multi-member body consisting of the chief information commission and at least one information commissioner.”

The Opposition BJP in the state had opposed the appointment of Virendra — considered close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee — because the vacancy had not been advertised nationally.

In 2022-23, the West Bengal Information Commission (WBIC) registered 1,922 complaints or appeals and could dispose of only 493. It issued only five notices and imposed no penalties or disciplinary action.

In 2023-24, the commission disposed of more complaints and appeals than were registered. It registered 2,522 and disposed of 5,971 complaints and appeals. In the same period, the worst three states for backlog are Maharashtra (1,08,641), Karnataka (50,277) and Tamil Nadu (41,241). Bengal is ranked 14.

In the estimated time taken to dispose of matter, Chhattisgarh is the worst at five years and two months, followed by Bihar (four-and-a-half years) and Odisha (three years and 11 months). Bengal is at rank 9.

The WBIC, however, has not imposed much penalty. It fined authorities ₹25,000. UP topped the list with approximately ₹4.85 crore, followed by Chhattisgarh at ₹1.83 crore and Karnataka ₹93.95 lakh.

In terms of the proportion of cases in which penalties were imposed, Nagaland was way ahead of any other state by fining authorities in a third of all cases it disposed of.