HC asks Centre on appointment of information commissioners

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the central government to inform it on the status of appointment of the chief information commissioner and three information commissioners, the posts lying vacant for nearly a year.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain to take instructions from the central government on the appointment of chief information commissioner and information commissioners and apprise the court on Thursday.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by Right to Information (RTI) activists R.K. Jain, Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh Batra, Subhash Chandra Agarwal.

The plea said under the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Central Information Commission (CIC) was created as a statutory body to decide appeals and complaints against public authorities for non-compliance with the act.

The proper functioning of the CIC is essential for the proper implementation of the RTI Act, the plea said, adding that the government has attempted to stifle the functioning of the RTI Act by failing to do its statutory duty -- to appoint chief information commissioner and information commissioners at the CIC.

The post of chief information commissioner at CIC is lying vacant since August 23, 2014, and the posts of three information commissioners have also been lying vacant for almost a year, it said.

"Thus, the CIC has been kept headless and there are four vacancies in the CIC. There are only seven information commissioners functioning, as of now," said advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for RTI activists.

The plea sought directions to the government to urgently prepare a short list of candidates for the posts of the chief information commissioner and three information commissioners in transparent manner for final selection and appointment to be concluded in a time-bound manner.

"Because of the non-appointment of the chief information commissioner and the three information commissioners, the pendency at CIC has shot up to a whopping 37,650 appeals/complaints," the PIL said.

"About 13,615 appeals and complaints are pending for disposal before the bench of Chief Information Commissioner, which includes cases of important authorities," the petition stated.