HC issues notices on disposal of appeals at CIC

Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Central Information Commission for allegedly adopting arbitrary practice of disposing appeals and complaints received by the transparency panel.

 

Justice Manmohan also issued notice to the Centre and sought replies by April 4 on a plea by activist R K Jain who questioned the arbitrary manner in which CIC was listing and processing appeals and complaints.

 

Jain claimed that he was in the knowledge of cases which have been decided even before they were registered by the registry of the CIC.

 

He alleged that some cases have been decided on the same date they have been filed even though they have not been registered, while there are other cases, like his own, which have not been listed for more than two years.

 

For a brief period, every registry of the Information Commissioners had started making public list of cases pending before it on the Commission's website to ensure that people can see whether cases are being processed in a transparent manner.

 

The practice was brought in at the insistence of the then Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi but with his retirement, it was withdrawn.

 

In his plea, Jain claimed that 3,500 appeals and complaints are awaiting registration with the Registry of the CIC.

 

"In the CIC after filing of appeals/complaint cases, it takes about two-three months for getting such appeal or complaint registered/numbered and as per the normal procedures, no case can be heard without it registration," he said.

 

Jain pleaded before the High Court that while there is a time limit given for the disposal of cases at the level of Central Public Information Officer and first appeal which is 30 days, no such limit is set for disposal of cases at second appeal stage before the CIC.

 

"Unreasonable delay in disposal of cases by CIC is defeating the very object of the RTI Act which envisages from making available the information to the citizens at the earliest and maximum in 30 days," he said.

 

He demanded that the Commission may be directed to provide decisions by it in respect of appeals or complaints duly registered within 3 months from the date of filing or any other timeframe the high court deemed fit.