‘More than 50 pc posts of Info Commissioners in CIC vacant’

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 19

With six out of 11 posts of information commissioners, including that of the Chief commissioner, lying vacant in the Central Information Commission (CIC), an RTI activist has moved the Supreme Court highlighting the problems of the functioning of India’s top transparency watchdog.

“There is currently a backlog of over 36,600 cases in the CIC,” RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj said in an application filed in the top court.

Highlighting the twin problems of vacancy and pendency, Bhardwaj urged the top court to take up the matter urgently.

The Supreme Court is already seized of a PIL regarding timely and transparent appointment of information commissioners in CIC and SICs under the RTI Act, 2005.

The top court had in February last year directed the government to fill up all the vacancies in CIC and SICs in a timely and transparent manner. 

It had said the Government should ensure that non-bureaucrats were also appointed as Information Commissioners in CIC and SICs. 

The Supreme Court had also asked the Government to ensure that non-bureaucrats were also appointed as Information Commissioners in the Central and state information commission and the vacancies were filled up timely and in a transparent manner. 

“We also expect that Information Commissioners are appointed from other streams, as mentioned in the (Right to Information) Act and the selection is not limited only to the Government employee/ex-government employee,” a Bench headed by Justice AK Sikri (since retired) had said.

Pointing out that in December last year the top court had given three months to the Centre to fill the vacancies that existed in the CIC, Bhardwaj alleged that the order has not been complied with.