There are a whopping 24,302 cases related to information appeals pending with the Central Information Commission as on Thursday, according to the CIC website. This backlog is in spite of the fact that the Commission is returning a majority of appeals coming to it, citing lack of documentation, premature appeals or forwarding of cases to the relevant State Information Commissions.
As per data available on the CIC website, in 2017 alone, of the 18,518 cases registered as appeals, the CIC returned 13,796 cases to appellants citing one reason or the other.
Sources in the CIC blame the lack of sufficient staff strength as among the reasons why their backlog is increasing. Last year on September 2, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) had advertised for the post of two Information Commissioners that fell vacant after M.A. Khan Yusfi and Basant Seth retired as information commissioners on December 31, 2016 and February 17, 2017 respectively. While the applications were invited well before the vacancies arose, no appointments have been made till date.
Right to Information (RTI) activists have been protesting the lack of appointments and speedy clearance of information appeals at the Commission. In a letter addressed to Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (PMO and Public Grievances) recently, activist and Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh Batra has highlighted that “the Government has failed to select and fill these posts while an RTI revealed that 225 persons have applied for these two posts.”
Mr. Batra said that two more Information Commissioners at the CIC are due for retirement soon: S. Sabharwal on September 23, 2017 and Manjula Parashar on January 15, 2018.
Madabhushanam Sridhar, Information Commissioner, CIC told The Hindu that the decisions for the appointment of ICs had to be finally made by the PMO as even the DoPT, which advertised for these posts, would act only if the PMO insisted on it.
“We at the CIC have no say in the appointment process. The delay is definitely contributing to the increase in numbers of pending cases,” he said, adding, “There is an understanding that every Information Commissioner handles approximately 270 cases a month, that is 3,240 cases per year. So, when two ICs are not available, it adds a burden of up to 6,000 cases per year. I'm hearing about 400 cases in a month. I heard 30 cases just today in one day. This is too much and it will definitely affect the quality of the judgment.”
Lack of transparency
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, members of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) highlighted the lack of transparency in the process of appointment of information commissioners. “In response to an application filed under the RTI Act, the DoPT has denied information about the process adopted for shortlisting candidates. The department has refused to disclose even the names of people who have applied in response to the DoPT circular inviting applications for the two posts,” the letter notes.
Mr. Batra told The Hindu that details of the progress with regards to proposed amendments to the RTI Act were also not being revealed to the public. In response to an RTI request, the DoPT had told the activist that public comments received on the proposed amendments via email were “not diarised”.
As per the CIC’s response, of the 789 persons who commented on the draft of the proposed amendments, only 30 persons had responded by postal mail. “By not maintaining records of communication received, the public authority (DoPT) is not only flouting the office procedure of record maintenance but also violating the section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act,” Mr. Batra said.
