Times of India: Aurangabad: Wednesday, June 28, 2017.
All hopes
that a full strength at the State Information Commission (SIC) and its seven
benches would expedite the hearing of second-appeals have been dashed with the
pendency remaining stagnant for around five months.
The number of
pending second-appeals was at an all time high at 39,494 when the government
made three full-time appointments of information commissioners on vacant
benches on January 6.
The
long-pending move allegedly failed to deliver as 39,455 applicants were still
awaiting a hearing before SIC and its benches as of May 2017.
Senior
journalist Dilip Dharurkar (Nagpur bench), former IPS official K L Bishnoi
(Nashik bench) and ex-tribal department commissioner Sambhaji Sarkunde
(Amravati bench) were appointed as new commissioners by the state governor
using powers vested under the RTI Act 2005, early this year. They had joined
the league of Ajitkumar Jain (Greater Mumbai bench), T F Thekkekara (Konkan
bench), Ravindra Jadhav (Pune bench) and Vasant Patil (Aurangabad) along with
chief information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad (Mumbai).
No marked
decrease in pendency of second-appeals made under the RTI Act has prompted
activists to train their guns at individuals holding chairs and their way of
functioning.
RTI activist
Vijay Kumbhar said the stagnant pendency of second appeals despite additional
appointments was detrimental to the transparency of the legislation.
"The
pendency should have gone down. It raises serious doubts over the slow disposal
rates, which is affecting hundreds of applicants," he said.
As per the
procedure followed in the appeals and complaints under RTI Act, the Information
Commission receives second appeals against the orders of appellate officers
under Section 19 of the Act. The Information Commissioner disposes of second
appeals. The applicant, the public information officer or assistant public
information officer and appellate officer (where required) are called for
hearing of the second appeal and their say is considered by the information
commissioner while deciding the case.
RTI activist
Vivek Velankar said accountability of each information commissioner had to be
fixed in terms of minimum disposal per month.
The SIC and
its benches had almost a month long summer vacation from May 8 to June 4, but
the disposal rate was allegedly poor during the working months of the current
year.
Former
central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi stressed the need for
improving disposal rate of second appeals by each information commissioner.
"Given the current pendency, applicants will have to wait to for at least
a few years for the hearing. Also, the mounting pendency will not have a check
on Public Information Officers and Appellate Officers," he said.
"The
section (4) of the RTI Act mandates fixing such responsibility, but it is an
irony that the SIC is not only paying heed to it. A section of information
commissioners has been dealing with pending cases in their own defied ways,
instead of following any common procedure. The self-styled functioning is
taking a toll on the implementation of the RTI Act," he said.
Three of SIC
benches did not have full-time information commissioners for long till January
this year. V D Patil, information commissioner for Nagpur bench of SIC was
given additional charge of Aurangabad and Amravati divisions. Similarly, R J
Jadhav, information commissioner with Pune bench, was looking after Nashik
division as an additional work.
Chief
information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad could not be reached for his comments
on high pendency.