Central Information Commission has not opened 10,000 RTI envelopes since

Economic Times: New Delhi: Thursday, 19 November 2015.

Central Information Commission has found an innovative way of reducing pendency of cases: not opening the mails. The transparency watchdog has not opened envelopes of about 10,000 RTI cases sent to it by aggrieved applicants over two months.

Even as it is receiving flak for turning away RTI applicants or seeking unnecessary papers, CIC revealed an appalling fact - it has not opened cases delivered to it since Augustend. The final appellate authority for RTI receives 3,500-4,000 RTI appeals every month. Now, the unopened cases, which have not even been registered, have hit a high of 10,000.

The fact has even shocked CIC's own information commissioners, like M Sridhar Acharyulu, have asked the problem be addressed immediately. According to sources, at least 2 of the seven information commissioners expressed shock over unopened cases at a meeting on Tuesday. The meeting ended with an agreement that staff would be asked to sift through the cases and issue registration numbers at the earliest.

ET impact: No photo proof from applicants

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has decided against seeking photo identification proof from RTI applicants. ET had first reported on October 27 on how RTI applicants were being asked to furnish a photo id proof alongwith their appeals filed at CIC. There is no requirement under RTI Act rules 2012 to seek such an identity proof. The applicants were also being turned away by CIC for this reason. After protests from the civil society, Chief Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma has now decided that the practice be discontinued.