The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre, states and Union Territories to file within three weeks status reports on the vacancies of information commissioners and pending cases under their respective jurisdictions, as it expressed anguish at the large-scale vacancies in the transparency panels.
A bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari passed the direction while dealing with a joint PIL filed by RTI activists Anjali Bhardwaj, Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra and Amrita Johri, which claimed that there were nearly 50 per cent vacancies in the Central Information Commission and various state commissions, thus frustrating the very objective of citizens’ right to access information.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioners said during the hearing that despite the apex court’s earlier judgment in February 2019 to fill up the vacancies, the Union and state governments had failed to fill the vacancies in the information commissions leading to a large number of pending cases and long delays in the disposal of appeals/complaints.
The bench while expressing its displeasure at the failure of the states to fill vacancies warned of strict action against non-compliance with its directions.
The petitioners pointed out that in its February 2019 judgment, the court had directed the Maharashtra government to ensure that the state information commission functions at full strength (one chief and 10 information commissioners) given the large backlog of appeals and complaints. However, the state commission is functioning with only four information commissioners even though there were more than 75,000 appeals/complaints pending as on May 31, 2021. The bench pulled up the Maharashtra government for not filling the vacancies in the state information commission and warned that the chief secretary will be summoned if the state fails to fill them within three weeks.
In case of Karnataka, the court had directed in its 2019 order that the state information commission should function at full strength for which the government must sanction all posts given the large number of pending cases. Whereas the state government sanctioned all posts, however, in the hearing it was pointed out that currently three posts are vacant even though there is backlog of more than 30,000 appeals/complaints in the commission. The bench directed the state to fill the vacancies and file a status report.
In the 2019 judgment, the Supreme Court had directed the state of Odisha to sanction three additional posts so the commission can function with one chief and six commissioners given the backlog of cases. During the hearing, it came to light that the state had sanctioned only two additional posts and currently the commission was functioning with only four commissioners. One post had fallen vacant in November 2020 and was yet to be filled up while the chief had retired on August 15 this year. The bench directed the government to file a status report.
During the hearing, it was pointed out that the state information commission of Telangana has been functioning without a chief for one year, despite the fact that the RTI Act envisages a crucial role for the official as the general superintendence, direction and management of the affairs of the SIC vests in the chief. The bench expressed disappointment at the state of affairs and directed that the appointment should be made by the next date of hearing.
It was highlighted that in the case of the state information commission of Nagaland, the previous chief retired in January 2020 and since then no appointment had been made. As a result, the commission has been headless for 19 months. The state was directed to fill the vacancy and file a status report.
In its February 2019 judgment, the court had directed the Bengal government to create three posts of commissioners in addition to the sanctioned strength of three (chief and two information commissioners). During the hearing it was pointed out that currently the commission is functioning with only two commissioners (one chief and one commissioner) though nearly 10,000 appeals/complaints are pending. The bench pulled up the state government for failing to file an affidavit before the hearing and for not filling up the vacancies.
On the other hand, though the government of Jharkhand was not a respondent in the case, however, it was pointed out that the state information commission has been effectively rendered defunct since May 2020, when the lone information commissioner retired. Since then no information commissioner or chief has been appointed and the commission has been non-functional with people seeking information having no recourse to the independent appellate mechanism prescribed under the RTI Act. The apex court expressed anguish at the current state of affairs and directed the state to fill up the vacancies and also file a report. The matter regarding the CIC will now be heard next week while state governments have been given three weeks to file status reports indicating the vacancies in their respective state information panels and the number of pending appeals/complaints.
