The Bombay High Court has given the State government two months to fill the post of State Information Commissioner (SIC) that has been vacant since the former commissioner, Ratnakar Gaikwad, retired in May this year.
Pending appeals
A Division Bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A.K. Menon was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Madhav Balwant Karmarkar. The petitioner had submitted that the post has been lying vacant and is under the additional charge of Ajit Kumar, the Information Commissioner of Greater Mumbai. The PIL shows that in 2015, there were 39,603 pending appeals before the SIC and by the end of the year it reduced to 28,465.
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The Bench said, “It goes without saying that the State government will have to take immediate steps for filling the vacant post of the Chief State Information Commissioner. This exercise shall be completed at the earliest and not later than two months.’
The SIC is responsible for implementing the Right to Information Act, 2005, hearing second appeals, and instructing the State government to enhance provisions in the law. As of August 2017, the commission had a pendancy of 1,872 cases.
The Bench observed, “There is huge pendancy of appeals before the State Commission. It it continues, the very object of setting up the machinery provided under the Right to Information Act, 2005 will be frustrated.”
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‘Create new posts’
The order said that the State government would have to take steps to created additional posts. It also directed the Additional Solicitor General to be present in court for the next hearing.