RTI Act Will Become ‘Dead Letter’ : Supreme Court Directs States, Union To Fill Vacancies In Information Commissions

The Supreme Court today (October 30) expressed its dissatisfaction with the failure of States and the Union to fill up the vacancies of Information Commissions across the country. The court directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to prepare a chart on the number of vacancies and number of appeals/complaints in all the commissions. Further, it directed the Centre and the States to take requisite steps forthwith to fill up the vacancies. 

The bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra was hearing a petition concerning the large number of vacancies in the information commissions set up under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, for the petitioners, submitted that despite the 2019 judgment of the Supreme Court in Anjali Bhardwaj and Ors v. Union of India, the vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and several State Information Commissions (SICs) had not been filled. He stated that this had lead to a large number of pending cases and long delays in the disposal of appeals/complaints.

Expressing the Court's displeasure, the CJI stated in the order–

"The failure of the State governments to fill posts of Information Commissioners defeats the purpose of the RTI Act and affects the right of information which becomes a ‘dead letter’ if vacancies are not filled up."

Accordingly, the Supreme Court directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to prepare a chart on the number of vacancies and number of appeals/complaints in all the commissions and directed the Central government and state governments to take immediate action to fill vacancies. Further, the court also directed all states to take steps forthwith to issue notifications to commence steps to fill vacancies.

During the hearing, the petitioners highlighted the commission-wise status of vacancies which is as follows–

• Central Information Commission (CIC) is currently functioning without a Chief and has 7 vacancies with only 4 commissioners working. All the 4 commissioners are set to retire their by November 6, 2023 following which the CIC will become defunct.

• Maharashtra SIC is without a Chief and functioning with only 4 commissioners even though more than 1,15,000 appeals/complaints are pending.

• Jharkhand SIC has been completely defunct since May 2020 and no appeals/complaints are being registered or disposed for the last three years.

• Tripura SIC has been defunct for more than 2 years since July 2021.

• Telangana SIC has been defunct since February 2023 even though more than 10,000 appeals/complaints are pending.

• Karnataka SIC is functioning with 5 commissioners and 6 posts are lying vacant. More than 40,000 appeals/complaints are pending before the commission.

• West Bengal SIC is functioning with 3 commissioners with around 12,000 appeals/complaints pending.

• Odisha SIC is functioning with 3 commissioners while more than 16,000 appeals/complaints are pending.

• Bihar SIC is functioning with 2 commissioners while more than 8,000 appeals/complaints are pending.

The matter will now be heard by the Supreme Court after three weeks.

The petitioners were represented by Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Rahul Gupta. The petitioners in the matter are Anjali Bhardwaj, Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd) and Amrita Johri Petitioners. 

Case Title: Anjali Bhardwaj & Ors v. Union of India | MA 1979/2019 in W.P.(C) No. 436/2018 PIL-W

Citation : 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 942

Click here to read the order