Appellants in quasi-judicial bodies normally find it difficult to track the status of their applications. The Central Information Commission has found a way out to help appellants track status of their applications. The transparency watchdog has decided to list status of all pending cases on its website to help the applicants find the reasons for why their appeal was not taken up while those of others were considered. There had been instances...

-The Times of India   With complaints of arbitrariness in hearing of cases piling up, the Central Information Commission last week began listing out pending cases before each commissioner on its website. Cases pending before chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra and information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi have already been uploaded while the other commissioners are likely to follow soon. This is the first time that an information commission has displayed at least a...

-DNA   The first day of the mass clearing programme of RTI applications piled up at the state information commission (SIC) was a grand success, with 53 of the 63 appellants (81%) making it for the hearing on Tuesday. The commission hopes to hear nearly 600 second appeals in the four-day ‘special appeal disposal programme’ kicked off at the Poddar Medical College on Dr Annie Besant Road at Worli. Acting state chief information commissioner...

To dispose of pending Right To Information (RTI) appeals, state information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar will hold Special Appeal Disposal Programme at Ramnath Anandilal Podar Medical College (Ayurved) in Worli on January 4, 5 and 6. Till November 30, more than 19,000 appeals were pending with the state information commission office. Almost 2,200-2,500 new appeals are filed in the state every month. “As part of this programme, the appellant, public information officer (PIO)...

-The Times of India   Work at the offices of information commissioners across the state has slowed down due to staff shortage, resulting in a pile of 19,000 pending RTI appeals. Of the 144 posts sanctioned by the state for the eight benches of state information commissioners, including the chief, 50 have not been filled. Apart from pending appeals, there are 3,447 complaints that need to be addressed. RTI activist Mohammed Afzal said...