Take steps to fill vacancies in CIC, SICs: SC to Centre, states

New Delhi: Taking serious note of vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and state information commissions (SICs), the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and the state governments to take steps to fill the posts, saying otherwise the 2005 law on right to information will become a “dead letter”.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also asked the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to collect information from all states on aspects including the sanctioned strength of information commissioners in the SICs, vacancies at present and the total number of pending cases there.

“The Right to Information Act of 2005 will become a dead letter,” the CJI said, voicing concern over the vacancies after taking note of the submissions by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan who, while appearing for RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, said the SICs in states like Jharkhand, Tripura and Telangana have become defunct as there were no serving information commissioners.

Bhushan, in the course of his arguments, highlighted the seven vacancies in the CIC and the fact that there was no Central Information Commissioner.

Even the four serving Information commissioners (ICs) will demit office in the coming months, he added.

Taking note of the submissions, the bench directed the DoPT to collate information from all states and file a status report, including on the aspect of steps being taken to fill the vacancies in SICs.

It also asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to assist the bench in dealing with the matter.

“We direct all the states to take steps to fill posts (in SICs). List it after three weeks,” the bench ordered.

Bhardwaj, in her application, claimed the Centre and states have not followed the apex court’s 2019 judgement on issues including timely filling up of vacancies at the CIC and SICs.

SC had in December 2019 directed the Centre and state governments to appoint information commissioners within three months at the CIC and SICs, observing there was a need to evolve guidelines to stop misuse of the Right to Information Act.