The State Information Commission agreed to consider some of the demands of the RTI Kerala Federation and other organisations that staged a dharna before the commission here on Tuesday.
In talks with leaders of the organisations, Chief Information Commissioner Siby Mathews said the commission would consider their representation against delegation of its powers regarding disposal of petitions to officials.
The commission had been returning complaints recently, on grounds that first appeals had not been filed before the appellate authority in the department concerned, in view of a Supreme Court judgment that commissioners could direct furnishing of information only against second appeals. The commission will examine whether complaints could still be considered for penal action.
Representatives of the federation, RTI Protection Forum, Fifth Estate, and Anti-corruption People's Movement proposed that the commission should hold adalats to clear the backlog of 4,740 complaints and appeal petitions. They offered that service of retired government officials could be made available on voluntary basis for clearance of the backlog.
They also called for transparency in the hearing of the commission which should be open to the public and the media.
RTI activist D.B. Binu told The Hindu that the State commissioners were not even disposing two cases a day though the national commission had set a norm that each of its commissioners should dispose about 3,200 cases a year. Some cases were pending for more than three years.
Mr. Binu said the lenient attitude of the commissioners were responsible for the piling up of complaints and petitions. If the commission took strong action such as issue of bailable warrants against officials failing to appear for the hearing, the cases and pendency would have naturally come down. The commission staff also needed proper training in handling the cases.
