Short of commissioners, information panel disposes of 34% fewer RTI complaints this fiscal

Central Information Commission building | Commons

Monthly average of cases disposed of has fallen from 2,695 complaints in 2016-17 to 1,790 this year, as CIC struggles with vacancies.

New Delhi: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has disposed of 34 per cent fewer Right to Information (RTI) complaints and final appeals this year when compared to the 2016-17 fiscal, as it struggles with vacancies.

In 2016-17, when the commission had its full strength of 11 commissioners, it disposed of an average of 2,695 complaints a month. In the 2017-18 financial year when there were nine commissioners, to begin with, but only seven from January, the CIC managed to dispose of 2,417 cases a month.

So far this fiscal, between April and August, with the CIC operating with just seven commissioners, the average has fallen to 1,790 cases a month.

“In 2016-17, the commission was working with its full strength of 11 commissioners but this year, it is functioning with only seven commissioners; so, there is an obvious dip in the disposal of complaints and appeals,” a government official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.

In this financial year so far, only 8,948 cases have been disposed of by the commission. “Even if the number doubles in the next six months, the commission would have disposed of less than 20,000 complaints in the year,” the official said. “So one can imagine what the situation would be if the vacancies are not filled.”

In 2017-18, for which the government is yet to release official data, ThePrint has learnt that the transparency watchdog disposed of 29,005 cases; in the previous fiscal, the figure was 32,334 cases.

Staff shortage

While the four vacancies have existed in the CIC since January this year, the government invited applications from eligible candidates to fill the vacant posts only last month.

“Even if the four vacancies get filled soon, another four vacancies are going to come up by the end of the year,” the official said.

Four information commissioners, including Chief Information Commissioner R.K. Mathur, are set to retire by December this year.

Given the increasing vacancies and pendency of cases, in not just the central commission, but even the state commissions across the country, RTI activists filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking immediate appointments of information commissioners. They also wanted the court to issue equivocal directives to all governments to start the appointment process at least four months prior to a post falling vacant.

“It is not surprising at all that the disposal rate has fallen given the vacancies,” RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, who is one of the petitioners in the case, said.

“In the coming two months, when four more commissioners retire, what can we expect from the CIC – especially when there is no chief commissioner… Without the chief, there will be nobody to allocate cases, sort out administrative issues,” she said.

While the government has sent out advertisements for commissioners, it has informed the court that it will take at least five months to make the appointments, Bhardwaj added. “That means there will inevitably be a situation where there are eight vacancies,” she said.