Centre refuses to make public records of deliberations on appointment of Information Commissioners

The Centre has refused to make public records containing deliberations on the appointment of four Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, claiming it to be cabinet papers which cannot be made public before the final decision is arrived at.

In response to an RTI application filed by activist Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra, the government has said 256 applications were received by it in response to its advertisement on January 4, 2019.

There are seven Information Commissioners, including the chief, as against a sanctioned strength of 11. Over 30,000 cases are pending before the the commission, the highest adjudicating body in matters pertaining to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, according to government data.

To Batra's demand for the list of applicants, procedure of selection and inspection of file notings, the government said, "The information relating is exempted under Section 8(1)(i) of the RTI Act, 2005. Since, the information in the file would be placed before the Committee of Secretaries and the process of selection of candidates is yet to be completed. It would not be conducive to allow inspection of files."