13k active cases files dumped with 2 lakh decided cases at CIC

In a huge mix-up of records at the Central Information Commission, 13,000 files of pending cases have been dumped with over two lakh case records which were decided and slated for weeding out.
It has now become a mammoth job at the Commission to segregate the two lakh files dumped in the registry among those which are part of active cases and those which have been closed after necessary directives.
New Chief Information Commissioner Radha Krishna Mathur has set a up team of officials under the Registrar to go through each of these files to streamline the records.
Sources said the Commission will weed out over two lakh files in which decisions have been given and no further compliance issue, or legal issue is pending but it will take another three-four months because of segregation process.

During a review of the registry maintenance process, it had recently emerged that among the 35,000 pending cases before Information Commissioners actual files of only about 21,000-22,000 cases were available.
The stock taking exercise showed that about 13,000 case files over the years were dumped along with the files which have been disposed of, the sources said.
The mix up necessitated a segregation process which is delaying weeding out of unnecessary records.
Over the years, staff of various information commissioners also did not bother to check the files which should have been provided to new information commissioners for deciding the matters and instead tried wriggle their way out by creating part files or avoiding those cases.