Dealing with the issue of vacancies at the Central Information Commission (CIC) and various State Information Commissions (SICs), the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Union government as well as states to furnish a timeline to fill up vacancies.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and NK Singh passed the order while hearing a PIL filed by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj and others. The court also directed the chief secretaries of all states to file compliance affidavits on the process to fill up vacancies in the SICs.
The petitioners, who had also filed a similar plea in 2023 against various posts lying vacant in the CIC as well as the SICs, reiterated concerns about lack of information commissioners making the right to information defunct.
The issue came to light after media reported that state commissions in at least four states, namely Jharkhand, Telangana, Tripura and Goa, have remained defunct with neither commissioners nor chief commissioners.
The apex court also ordered the competent authorities to appoint the selected members within two weeks. The chief secretaries have been
instructed to inform the court about the current number of vacancies in the commissions.
