Prioritise RTI hearings on life and liberty clause, says Bombay High Court

DNA: Mumbai: Thursday, 28 May 2015.

There is some relief at the chief central information commissioner's bench for RTI applicants. Those waiting for a long time will now see their appeals being heard at benches where information commissioners exist. Besides that the CIC has been asked by the high court to prioritise the hearings of waitlisted appeals based on life and liberty clause of the RTI Act.

The order was passed by justice Rajiv Shakdher on May 22. The court also directed the CIC to distribute cases allocated administratively to the chief information commissioner to all information commissioners, who will then take up the matters according to seniority, and wherever necessary, expedite the hearing in the cases falling within their respective domains.

The order was passed after a petitioner sought to speed up the disposal of second appeals. The pending second appeals have jumped to over 100 per cent from the previous year. Lately, their performace too came in for an all round criticism as not more than 5,000 appeals were being filed.

As of now, the total number of second appeals and complains stand at 39,655. Of these, those at the CIC's bench is 15,275. On August 23, 2014 when the then chief central information commissioner Rajiv Mathur reitred, the total appeals pending in CIC were 29,952 while in his bench it was 7,651.