3.14 lakh RTI appeals and complaints pending in 26 information commissions across India

There are 3.14 lakh Right to Information Act appeals and complaints pending as of 30 June 2022 in the 26 information commissions across the country from which data was obtained, with four of them functioning without a chief.

This is the state of affairs on the seventeenth anniversary of the implementation of the RTI Act in India. The RTI Act was implemented on October 12, 2005.

The 2019 assessment had found that as of 31 March 2019, a total of 2,18,347 appeals/complaints were pending in the 26 information commissions from which data was obtained, which climbed to 2,86,325 as of 30 June 2021.

At least 2,12,443 appeals and complaints were registered between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022 by 25 information commissions for whom relevant information was available. During the same time period, 2,27,950 cases were disposed by 27 commissions for which information could be obtained.

This report by the Satark Naagarik Sangathan has come close on the heels of Central Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar having reportedly written to Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena on Tuesday, 11 October 2022, over the “failure” of the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government in implementing the Right to Information Act.

Following this, the LG’s secretariat has directed Delhi chief secretary to take corrective action at the earliest, said sources. The Delhi government is yet to comment officially on the matter.

Case of vacant posts and pending complaints

In the Central Information Commission, three posts of commissioners continue to be vacant even though the backlog of complaints currently stands at nearly 26,800 cases.

In December 2019, when there were four vacancies in the CIC, the Supreme Court had directed the Central government to fill all the vacancies within a period of three months.

However, it appointed only one new commissioner and elevated an existing commissioner to the post of CIC.

By September 2020, the CIC and another commissioner finished their tenure and a total of 6 posts, including that of the CIC, fell vacant. In November 2020, three new commissioners were appointed and an existing commissioner was made the CIC, bringing the number of vacant posts to three.

The report states that two information commissions – in Jharkhand and Tripura – are completely defunct because no new commissioners have been appointed upon the incumbents demitting office.

The State Information Commissions of Manipur, Telangana, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are functioning without a chief.

The SIC of West Bengal has been functioning without a chief since 7 June 2022, while the chief of the Andhra Pradesh SIC demitted office on 6 July 2022, and since then an existing commissioner has been given the additional charge of the chief, though there is no such explicit provision for that in the law.

The SIC of Nagaland functioned without a chief for 25 months from January 2020 until February 2022 and the SIC of Odisha for a period of nearly two months between August and October 2021.

Under the RTI Act, information commissions consist of a chief information commissioner and up to 10 information commissioners. However, several information commissions have been functioning at reduced capacity.

Maharashtra has been functioning with just five information commissioners, including the chief, for several months now. Due to the commission functioning at a severely reduced strength, the number of pending appeals/complaints has risen at an alarming rate. While as of 31 March 2019, close to 46,000 appeals and complaints were pending, the backlog as of May 2021 increased to nearly 75,000 and reached an alarming level of nearly 1 lakh by June 2022. This is an over 100 per cent increase in pending cases in the three years.

The Bihar SIC is functioning with just four commissioners for the last several months despite a backlog of more than 21,000 complaints.

SIC of Maharashtra registered the highest number of appeals and complaints (48,174) followed by Uttar Pradesh (34,567) and Karnataka (26,694) during the period under review.

The CIC registered 19,822 appeals/complaints.

The SIC of Tamil Nadu did not provide the requisite information under the RTI Act, claiming that that information could not be provided without the approval of the legislative assembly, though no such provision exists under the RTI Act. This information could also not be located on the TN SIC website.

The UP SIC disposed the highest number of cases (39,352) followed by the CIC (30,302) and Karnataka (25,710).

Disposal of cases

Using data on the backlog of cases in ICs and their monthly rate of disposal, it was computed that the estimated time required for disposal of a complaint in the CIC was 11 months. In Odisha and Maharashtra SICs, the estimated time for disposal is more than five years and in Bihar, more than two years.

The assessment shows that 12 commissions would take one year or more to dispose a matter.

It should be noted that West Bengal SIC would take 24 years and three months to dispose a matter. A matter filed on 1 July 2022 would be disposed in the year 2046 at the current monthly rate of disposal.

The report revealed that most commissions function under a shroud of secrecy. Section 25 of the RTI Act obligates each commission to prepare a “report on the implementation of the provisions of this Act” every year which is to be laid before Parliament or the state legislature.

Annual Reports

However, the report reveals that many of the commissions have not published their annual reports. 20 out of 29 ICs (69%) have not published their annual report for 2020-21. Only the CIC and SICs of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Mizoram, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh have published their annual report for 2021 and made them available on the official websites. Additionally, the SIC of Karnataka did not provide information under the RTI Act.

The SICs of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have not published their annual report since the constitution of the respective SICs in 2017, following the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh.