-HowIndiaLives.com * From high vacancies to shorter tenures to rising pendency, the Central Information Commission (CIC), India’s right-to-information (RTI) appeals body faces a plethora of problems today From almost always having a head to being headless. From five-year terms for key staff to three-year terms. From rules that didn’t leave room for interpretation to an overriding provision for the government. From hardly ever rejecting applications on the grounds of documentation to doing...

-The Indian Express The Government is also learnt to have finalized the name of Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General Saroj Punhani for the post of Information Commissioner. New Delhi: The Government is set to appoint former Indian Foreign Service officer and Information Commissioner Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha as the new Chief Information Commissioner and journalist Uday Mahurkar as an Information Commissioner despite strong objections from Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Opposition member in the...

-The Telegraph RTI body issues notice to three wings of the central govt for ‘obstruction of information and providing an evasive reply’ At 7.25pm on Tuesday, 16.23 crore Indians were using the Aarogya Setu App but the departments concerned in the Narendra Modi government have claimed in writing that they do not have any information on who created the app and they do not possess files relating to this “mandatory” tool to...

-The Hindu Office cites ‘diversion of resources’ clause; former CIC Wajahat Habibullah terms it ‘misuse of Act’. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has denied a Right to Information request related to the PM-CARES Fund on the grounds that providing it would “disproportionately divert the resources of the office.” However, a High Court judgment and multiple orders of the Central Information Commission (CIC) have previously held that, under the RTI Act, this rationale...

-Newsclick.in The threat to right to information is not only from the government but from within the Central Information Commission (CIC) as well. Several activists and scholars, including former information commissioners, have recently expressed concern over the government’s dilution of the Right to Information Act (RTI). However, the threat to right to information is not only from the government but from within the Central Information Commission (CIC) as well. Under the Right to...