Government to appoint CIC soon, but RTI takes a hit
BACKLOG Over 10,000 appeals, 2,000 complaints from RTI applicants are pending with the CIC, old cases may take two to four years to clear up
NEW DELHI: The Modi government is expected to complete the selection for the chief information commissioner and three information commissioners within the next one month but the right to information has already taken a bloody hit.
In the six months that the chief information commissioner’s (CIC) post has been vacant, the number of appeals pending before the CIC has already doubled from 5,875 in August last year to
10,455. In addition, there are another 2,300 complaints from RTI applicants waiting for a CIC’s attention.
This means that if the new chief information commissioner doesn’t innovate to ensure early disposal of cases, the information watchdog could be struggling with the old cases for the next two to four years.
Since 2009, information commissioners have been able to annually dispose between 2,100 to
3,800 cases.
The CIC’s post has been vacant since 22 August when former CIC Rajiv Mathur’s tenure ended.
According to documents accessed under the RTI, the department of personnel & training had moved the proposal to appoint Mathur’s replacement days after the Modi government came to power. But the PMO went slow.
Later, it insisted that the process to appoint the CIC and the information commissioners be tweaked. A panel of civil servants headed by cabinet secretary AK Seth has held two meetings over the last one month — the second was on 6 February — to come up with a short list.
The next step will be the meeting of the PM-headed selection committee that includes Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge expected to be held soon.
But RTI activists say reducing pendency is only one side of the challenge. The other, and equally important, was a declining quality of decisions from the commission and the continuing watchdog’s reluctance to use their powers to penalise officials who block transparency.
In his initial avtar of a Right to Information activist, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had argued that if the commission did not make an example of officials who stand in the way of transparency, it would get flooded by complaints and appeals.
SINCE 2009, INFORMATION COMMISSIONERS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ANNUALLY DISPOSE BETWEEN 2,100 TO 3,800 CASES