The Print: New Delhi: Friday, August 31, 2018.
Monthly average of
cases disposed of has fallen from 2,695 complaints in 2016-17 to 1,790 this
year, as CIC struggles with vacancies.
The Central Information
Commission (CIC) has disposed of 34 per cent fewer Right to Information (RTI)
complaints and final appeals this year when compared to the 2016-17 fiscal, as
it struggles with vacancies.
In 2016-17, when the
commission had its full strength of 11 commissioners, it disposed of an average
of 2,695 complaints a month. In the 2017-18 financial year when there were nine
commissioners, to begin with, but only seven from January, the CIC managed to
dispose of 2,417 cases a month.
So far this fiscal,
between April and August, with the CIC operating with just seven commissioners,
the average has fallen to 1,790 cases a month.
“In 2016-17, the commission
was working with its full strength of 11 commissioners but this year, it is
functioning with only seven commissioners; so, there is an obvious dip in the
disposal of complaints and appeals,” a government official told ThePrint on
condition of anonymity.
In this financial year
so far, only 8,948 cases have been disposed of by the commission. “Even if the
number doubles in the next six months, the commission would have disposed of
less than 20,000 complaints in the year,” the official said. “So one can
imagine what the situation would be if the vacancies are not filled.”
In 2017-18, for which
the government is yet to release official data, ThePrint has learnt that the
transparency watchdog disposed of 29,005 cases; in the previous fiscal, the
figure was 32,334 cases.
Staff shortage
While the four
vacancies have existed in the CIC since January this year, the government
invited applications from eligible candidates to fill the vacant posts only
last month.
“Even if the four
vacancies get filled soon, another four vacancies are going to come up by the
end of the year,” the official said.
Four information
commissioners, including Chief Information Commissioner R.K. Mathur, are set to
retire by December this year.
Given the increasing
vacancies and pendency of cases, in not just the central commission, but even
the state commissions across the country, RTI activists filed a public interest
litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking immediate appointments of
information commissioners. They also wanted the court to issue equivocal
directives to all governments to start the appointment process at least four
months prior to a post falling vacant.
“It is not surprising
at all that the disposal rate has fallen given the vacancies,” RTI activist
Anjali Bhardwaj, who is one of the petitioners in the case, said.
“In the coming two
months, when four more commissioners retire, what can we expect from the CIC especially when there is no chief
commissioner… Without the chief, there will be nobody to allocate cases, sort
out administrative issues,” she said.
While the government
has sent out advertisements for commissioners, it has informed the court that
it will take at least five months to make the appointments, Bhardwaj added.
“That means there will inevitably be a situation where there are eight vacancies,”
she said.