Tue Nov 26 13:42:25 UTC 2024: **Supreme Court Slams Government for Crippling RTI Act Through Unfilled Vacancies**

NEW DELHI, November 26, 2024 – The Supreme Court on Tuesday sharply criticized the government for the widespread vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions (SICs), effectively crippling the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The court heard arguments that the vacancies are a deliberate attempt to undermine transparency in governance.

The CIC, the top appellate body under the RTI Act, currently has eight out of eleven sanctioned posts vacant. The government’s slow response to fill these vacancies, despite previous warnings, prompted the court’s strong rebuke. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj and other petitioners, argued that the non-filling of vacancies is a deliberate strategy to render the RTI Act ineffective. He stated that the backlog of appeals, reaching 22,462 at the CIC alone, underscores this failure.

The court also highlighted the severe situation in several states. The SICs in Jharkhand, Telangana, and Tripura have been defunct for years due to a lack of appointments. Maharashtra faces a backlog of over one lakh appeals with seven vacancies, while Karnataka has over 50,000 pending appeals with eight vacancies. Similar issues plague other states, including Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Odisha.

While the government claimed that three new appointments were made to the CIC in November 2023 and that eleven is the maximum number of posts, the court demanded immediate action. Justice Kant questioned the delay in filling the remaining vacancies, urging the government to expedite the process and submit a compliance report.

The court directed the Jharkhand Chief Secretary to initiate the appointment process immediately and file a compliance report. It also requested status reports from Telangana and Tripura regarding their selection processes for the SICs. The Supreme Court’s intervention underscores the gravity of the situation and the urgent need to restore the effectiveness of the RTI Act.

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