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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/sc-lens-on-information-vacuum-4685003.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | SC lens on information vacuum | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

SC lens on information vacuum

-The Telegraph

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre, Bengal and seven other states on a petition seeking immediate filling up of the posts in the Central Information Commission and the state information commissions.

A bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan sought responses within four weeks on the PIL filed jointly by three RTI activists - Anjali Bharadwaj, Amrita Jorhi and Lokesh K. Batra - from Delhi. The petitioners were represented by advocate Kamini Jaiswal.

The bench told additional solicitor-general Pinky Anand that the matter was "serious" and issued notices to the authorities.

According to the petition, the Centre and the governments in eight states - Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Odisha, Karnataka and Telangana - have attempted to stifle the RTI Act by failing to ensure the appointment of information commissioners on time.

The posts in the commissions have been left vacant although there is a huge backlog of appeals. Complaints have arisen that the commissions were not furnishing information on time.

The petition alleged that because of the non-appointment of information commissioners, several panels take months and in some cases, even years, to decide appeals. The RTI Act prescribes statutory timelines of 30 days for providing information from the date of application and disposal of the first appeal within 45 days.

At present, there are four vacancies in the Central Information Commission and more than 23,500 appeals and complaints are pending.

"The state information commission of Andhra Pradesh is completely non-functional as not a single information commissioner has been appointed to the commission.... Maharashtra, which has a backlog of more than 40,000 appeals and complaints, has four vacancies."

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