NEW DELHI: The SC on Tuesday expressed concern over persistent vacancies in the state and at the Centre Information commissionsthey say Right to Information Act cannot be made unnecessary by keeping bodies dysfunctional.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing on behalf of petitioner Anjali Bhardwaj, painted a bleak picture of information commissions in the country and said, “Instead of implementing the SC verdict of February 2019 which laid down detailed timelines and transparent processes for appointment of Chief Information Commissioners and Information Commissioners have determined that… The vacancy status has worsened.
The Center and states have adopted a regressive approach in implementing the RTI law. Due to the large gaps in the information commissions, no information from the departments reaches the citizens. “Everyone is trying to destroy the RTI law as no government wants to give information to citizens,” he said.
Taking objections to the Centre’s lazy approach in concluding the selection process for appointment of information commissioners to the Central Information Commission (CIC), which began in August last year, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and NK Singh said, “The Union government must divide us into two parts. “What is the use of establishing an institution according to a law and not keeping it functional?”
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The bank faced a unique situation in Jharkhand where the State Information Commission (SIC) was non-functional for the last four years. It was informed that no selection could be made as no opposition leader, who is a member of the selection panel for SIC, was notified after the November Assembly elections. The bench directed the main opposition party, the BJP, to nominate one of its MLAs to be included in the selection panel and directed the state to appoint the chief information commissioner and six information commissioners within seven weeks.
The Chamber fixed the schedule for compliance and directed all other States to publish a list of applicants for the posts of CICs and ICs within a week, publish the composition of the search committee along with the selection criteria a week thereafter and conduct the interviews in to be completed in the next six weeks. and make appointments in the next two weeks.
SC asked chief ministers of all states to submit compliance reports after eight weeks and asked them to inform the information commissions about the level of pendency.
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