In a path-breaking initiative, the Central Information Commission, which is the Central appellate body for the Right to Information Act, has decided on a minimum performance norm for its commissioners. This is the first such decision by a quasi-judicial body in the country.
Under the new norm, which the commissioners decided by consensus on March 22, 2011, after several rounds of often fractious consultations, each Central Information Commissioner will be required to dispose of a minimum of 3,200 cases annually. The current national average of disposals by Information Commissioners is less than 1,000.
The Central Information Commissioners also decided by mutual agreement to upload their asset details on the CIC website.
With respect to the benchmark for disposal, the minutes of the March 22 meeting said: “Taking note of the increasing pendency of appeals/complaints in the Commission over the last few years and realizing the need for their expeditious disposal, the Commission hereby resolves that each single bench of the Commission shall take urgent steps to maximize its disposal without compromising the quality thereof, as a general rule, each single bench will endeavour to decide about 3,200 appeals/complaints per year.”
Last year, Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who disposed of 4,599 cases, topped the list of disposals followed by Annapurna Dixit who disposed of 3,965 cases. The current Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra disposed of 3,475 cases. Wajahat Habibullah who retired as chief of the body in September 2010 disposed of 892 cases. Central Information Commissioners Sushma Singh and Deepak Sandhu disposed of 1,939 and 1,859 cases respectively.
