With No Chief Information Commissioner, RTI Appeals Pile Up

NDTV: New Delhi: Friday, March 20, 2015.

Right to Information or RTI applicants seeking information from the Prime Minister's Office, Rashtrapati Bhawan or the Supreme Court will have to wait for an average of three years, especially if their applications have been turned down, say RTI experts.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha in February, the government said that close to 38,000 second appeals under the Right to Information Act or RTI are pending with the Central Information Commission or CIC. According to the government data as many as 22,000 appeals were waiting to be heard till August last year.

According to the CIC annual report, the Prime Minister's Office is among the top public authorities to reject the maximum number of RTI applications received by them during 2013-14.

RTI experts attribute this to the delay in appointment of a new Chief Information Commissioner, after the former CIC chief Rajiv Mathur retired in August last year.

As per the RTI Act, the applications and first appeals are required to be mandatorily disposed off within 30 days of their receipt. However, no time limit has been prescribed for disposal of second appeals pending with the CIC.

RTI campaigner Subhash Agarwal told NDTV, "Just as justice delayed is justice denied, similarly information delayed is information denied." He feels that longer the delay in deciding appeals, the lesser is fear of penalties in junior government officials who are now routinely denying information.

Until last year, the senior most Information Commissioner at the CIC was elevated to the post of chief. The BJP led NDA government had, however, issued advertisements last October in a bit to attract more candidates for the post.

Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, says "There have been no delays from the DoPT and the process on appointments is on."

RTI activist Nikhil Dey is not convinced. He told NDTV, "The government had said it was supportive of the RTI, now it is dragging its feet. We will get parties to raise this issue in the Parliament and hit the streets in protest."