“What is the use of setting up information commissions if there are no persons to perform duties?”: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 7) said that the sanctioned posts in the Central/State Information Commissions must be filled and questioned that what is the use of creating an institution if there is no one to perform the duties.>

The court made the observations while a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh was hearing a PIL filed by activist Anjali Bhardwaj and others raising the issue of various posts lying vacant in CIC and SICs.>

“Whatever sanctioned posts are there in the Central/State Information Commissions…they must be filled…else what is the use of setting up an institution if it does not have people to perform the duties?” Justice Kant said in response to advocate Prashant Bhushan’s claims that the failure of state governments to fill the vacancies in the commissions defeats the very basis of the RTI Act, reported LiveLaw.>

“Everybody is interested in killing the Right to Information Act because nobody wants to hand over any information and the easiest way to kill it is to make this Information Commission completely defunct. That is the way they have found to kill RTI- the law”, said Bhushan representing the petitioners.>

The Supreme Court observed from the status reports of various states that though most of the states have initiated the selection process to fill the vacancies in the commissions, there was no commitment to a timeline within which appointments should be made.>

The court ordered that the list of applicants be notified within one week, the composition of the search committee (along with the criteria prescribed for shortlisting) be notified within 1 week thereafter; the timeline within which interviews are to be conducted shall be notified which shall not be more than 6 weeks from the date on which the composition of the search committee and the criteria are notified and upon receipt of recommendations the competent authority shall investigate and make appointments within 2 weeks .>

“All the states shall separately find out the total dependency before the information commissions and such information shall also be furnished”, the court added.>