Supreme Court Calls For Urgent Filling Of Vacant Posts In Central & State Information Commissions
The Supreme Court has called for urgent action to address the vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and various State Information Commissions (SICs).
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan issued directives to ensure the timely appointment of information commissioners in these bodies, which play a pivotal role in implementing the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the Petitioners while ASG Brijender Chahar and Senior Advocate Arunabh Choudhary appeared for the Respondents.
The directions came while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj and others. Advocate Prashant Bhushan informed the Court of the extensive vacancies based on a status report furnished on November 11.
During a hearing on November 26, the Court noted that eight posts in the CIC are currently vacant, leaving only three Information Commissioners in service. It directed ASG Brijender Chahar to submit a status report within two weeks, detailing initiatives taken to fill these positions.
The Court also observed significant vacancies across multiple SICs:
1. Maharashtra: 7 vacant posts
2. Karnataka: 8 vacant posts
3. Chhattisgarh: 2 vacant posts
4. Bihar: 1 vacant post
5. West Bengal: 4 vacant posts
6. Odisha: 5 vacant posts
7. Tamil Nadu: 2 vacant posts
It further highlighted that the SICs in Jharkhand, Telangana, and Tripura have been defunct for several years due to a complete lack of appointments.
The Court directed these States to submit status reports within two weeks, specifying timelines for initiating and completing the appointment process. All remaining States were also instructed to furnish details on the total number of sanctioned posts in their SICs, current vacancies, and proposed timelines for filling them.
"As of now, we do not comment upon the reasons assigned by the State of Jharkhand for not appointing any Information Commissioner thus far. We instead direct the Chief Secretary, State of Jharkhand to ensure that the process of appointment of the Information Commissioner(s) be initiated within four weeks, and a compliance affidavit is filed to that effect. As regards to the State of Telangana, its learned counsel states that the selection process was started in June 2024 and the appointments will be made at the earliest. Let the State of Telangana, too, file a status report by way of an affidavit detailing how quickly the appointments shall be made. The needful shall be done within two weeks," the Court directed.
It further directed, "Learned counsel for the State of Tripura states that the selection process is ongoing. Let a status report to this effect be filed, similar to the ones directed hereinabove, along with a timeline within which the appointment(s) shall be made. There shall be a similar direction to all the States, who shall file their status reports through their respective Chief Secretaries, as to how many total sanctioned posts of Information Commissioners are there in the concerned State and how many of those posts are lying vacant at present. They shall also undertakethe time within which the selection process will be initiated and the vacant posts will be filled-up. The needful shall be done within two weeks." The Court has scheduled the next hearing for December 17, 2024.
Cause Title: Anjali Bhardwaj & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.
Appearance:-
Petitioner: Advocates Prashant Bhushan, Rahul Gupta, Tishampati Sen, Riddhi Sancheti, Anurag Anand, Mukul Kulhari
Respondent: Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Brijender Chahar, Senior Advocate Arunabh Choudhary, Advocates Arvind Kumar Sharma, Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, Pallavi Langar, Madhumita Bhattacharjee, G. N. Reddy, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Nishe Rajen Shonker, Gaurav Khanna, V N Raghupathy, Devina Sehgal, Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, Rajesh Ranjan, Astha Singh, Rajan Kr Chourasia, Amit Sharma, Vaishali Verma, Pragya Baghel, Sujeet Kumar Chaubey, Debarati Sadhu, Srija Choudhury, Anant, Bharat Bagla, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Anu K Joy, Alim Anvar, Natasha Sahrawat, Gautam Barnwal, Deepali Bhanot, Rudraksh Pandey, Alisha Roy, Vishwanath P Allannavar, Mythili S, Yatharth Kansal, Karun Sharma, Rajkumari Divyasana, Indrajit Prasad
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