The Hindu: New Delhi: Wednesday, June 07, 2017.
The National
Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) has written to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi expressing concern at the delay in filling two positions
of information commissioners at the Central Information Commission (CIC).
MA Khan Yusfi
and Basant Seth retired as information commissioners on December 31, 2016 and
February 17, 2017 respectively. However, “while the Department of Personnel and
Training (DoPT) had invited applications for the posts in September 2016, well
before the vacancies arose, no appointments have been made till date,” stated
the NCPRI letter, dated June 5, 2017.
Noting that
the CIC has been functioning at a reduced strength for nearly five months, the
letter pointed out that “the vacancies are hindering people’s fundamental right
to information as guaranteed under the RTI Act, 2005 as fewer information
commissioners hearing cases leads to increased pendency resulting in people
having to wait for a long time” to be heard by the CIC. According to the CIC
website, nearly 27,000 appeals and complaints were pending before the CIC as of
June 1, 2017.
The letter
also expressed concern at the lack of transparency in the appointment of
information commissioners, noting that the DoPT had denied an RTI application
seeking information about the process adopted for short-listing candidates. The
DoPT also refused to disclose the names of those who had applied in response to
its circular inviting applications, the letter said.
Pointing out
that the Supreme Court has underlined the need for transparency in the
appointment of information commissioners and has even struck down several
appointments of information commissioners on account of lack of transparency in
the appointment process, the letter urged the Prime Minister to ensure that the
two information commissioners are appointed at the earliest and that the “the
process and criteria for selecting candidates” are made public.
Under the RTI
Act, information commissions are the final appellate authority. They are
entrusted with the task of deciding the appeals and complaints of persons who
have been unable to secure information in accordance with the RTI Act or are
aggrieved by violations of the Act.