Fill CIC vacancies without further delay: Par panel to govt

Citing over 37,000 pending cases under the RTI Act, a Parliamentary Committee today asked the government to fill without further delay vacant posts of chief and Information Commissioners in Central Information Commission (CIC).
The Parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice said it is "not happy with the non-filling up of vacancies in the Commission".
"The Committee desires that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) should fill these vacant positions without any further delay," it said in its report tabled in Parliament today.
At present, there are seven Information Commissioners working in the CIC against its sanctioned strength of ten. There is no Chief Information Commissioner presently working in the transparency watchdog.

The vacancies are to a large extent, responsible for the increasing pendency of cases in the Commission, the report said. There were 37,924 pending cases in the CIC as on March 13, 2015.
"The Committee takes serious note of the increased pendency with the Commission as its rate of disposal is lower than the rate of institution of cases.
The Commission was set up with a mandate to provide speedy relief to the aggrieved parties. However, the current situation runs counter to this mandate," it said.
The CIC, which is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed against government departments or public authorities by information seekers under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has been working without its chief since August 22 last year.