Real time updates for Right to Information cases via email, SMS

Economic Times‎: New Delhi: Monday, September 05, 2016.

You will now get real time updates while filing a complaint or appeal under Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has taken an e-leap and would function like an e-court with all its case files moving digitally and the applicant being alerted about case hearings through an SMS and email.

Starting next week, CIC would move to a new software, which would make the hearings faster and more convenient. As soon as an RTI applicant files an appeal or a complaint, he would be given a registration number and would get an alert on email and mobile phone about his case. The case would then be electronically transferred immediately to the concerned information commissioner's registry electronically.

All this would be done within hours. At present, the process takes a few days.

The new system would also alert the RTI applicant about the date of hearing. An automatic SMS and email would be generated. Apart from this, the applicant would get an email in advance listing out the records given by him to CIC and the government's submissions in his case. A senior CIC official told ET, "At present, the appellant and the ministry sometimes appear in the case without knowing what the submissions are. So this would help both sides in preparing for the case."

The Commission would be able to expedite the processing of applications with the new software. At present, it also has to deal with complaints of loss of case files and nonregistration of cases. The facility would not only benefit the appellants but also information commissioners.

When a commissioner would open a case file on his computer, he would get a ready background of the specific case and also details about the appellant. The official said, "We would know if he has more appeals pending. This could facilitate hearing of multiple appeals of the same person on a given day. It would directly impact pendency as more cases would be disposed in a day." CIC has already scanned 1.5 lakh files and converted them into electronic files.