Times of
India: Jaipur:
Thursday, April 04, 2013.
Nearly five
months after a Supreme Court order making it mandatory for the information commission
to hear appeals by at least a two-member bench, the government is yet to
appoint any information commissioners. In fact, the commission has remained
defunct in the past few months due to the non-appointment of commissioners.
According to
estimates, there are nearly 12,000 second appeals pending for hearing and the
time period of appeals filed now is almost two years.
In its
September 13, 2012 ruling, the apex court had made it mandatory that appeals
under the RTI Act can be heard at the state information commissions only by
benches comprising at least two information commissioners (ICs). The Rajasthan
Information Commission (RIC) has just a chief information commissioner but not
a single information commissioner. The Act prescribes a minimum of two and a
maximum of 10 information commissioners in a state.
The judgment
resulted in the work at information commissions coming to a standstill in
several states, including Rajasthan where the pendency of appeals then ranged
at around 8000. In its order, the apex court had also said that commissioners
in state and central information commissions should have a judicial background.
The information commissions were also asked to operate in benches of two
members, with at least one member having a judicial background.
Later, in
October last year, the state government assured the Rajasthan high court,
during the hearing of a PIL on the non-functional commission, that it would
comply with the recent Supreme Court judgment on appointing at least the
minimum number of information commissioners required under the RTI Act within
the next three weeks.
Sources said
that state government accordingly shortlisted the names of 41 judges for being
appointed as information commissioners but thereafter nothing was done.
"The appointment of an IC, as per the Right To Information (RTI) Act, has
to done by a three-member panel comprising the chief minister, the leader of
the Opposition and a cabinet minister. But in Rajasthan, little effort seems to
have been made for calling a meeting of the panel to decide on the ICs,"
said Kamal Tak, a member of the Rozgar Evum Suchna Ka Adhikar Abhiyan.
When
contacted, Chandramohan Meena, additional chief secretary, general
administration department, said, "We have shortlisted the names and given
them to the high powered committee that also includes the chief minister. Now
it is the committee that has to meet and decide on the names. But till then the
information commission will remain non-functional as per the Supreme Court
order."
The state had
faced a similar situation when the post of the chief information commissioner
(CIC) fell vacant in April 2011 after the then CIC retired. But subsequently
about six months later, the three-member panel met and appointed the then
information commissioner T Srinivasan as the CIC.
Interestingly,
Rajasthan was instrumental in bringing about the RTI Act in the country which
has now become one of the biggest showpiece legislations of UPA. But till the
time the state puts its act together and appoints an IC soon, it may well be
justice delayed for many seeking justice under the Act.
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