New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday pleas seeking filling of vacancies in Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions (SICs) amid rising pendency of cases before them.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi will hear pleas filed by activist Anjali Bhardwaj and others in which it had earlier directed the Centre to expeditiously fill up the vacancies in the CIC and SICs.
On November 27, the top court deferred the matter after it was informed by Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj that the selection committee constituted under section 12(3) of the Right to Information Act, 2005 was scheduled to meet on October 28, 2025 but the meeting could not take place.
The bench had asked Nataraj to speak to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and apprise them of the total vacancies, observing that “we have no reason to doubt that the Competent Authority will take the necessary initiative to fill the available vacancies”.
It had noted that states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Karnataka have broadly filled all the vacancies and their Information Commissions are working at full capacity while in Chhattisgarh, in six weeks’ time, the vacancies will be filled.
The top court noted the submission of advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner that seven posts of information commissioner are lying vacant in Madhya Pradesh.
The bench had directed the chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh to start the process immediately of appointing information commissioners, if it has not been initiated, and submit a compliance affidavit to this court.
“It is clarified that if the needful is not done before the next date of hearing, the Chief Secretary shall be required to remain personally present before this Court on the next date of hearing,” the top court had said.
On October 27, the top court refused to issue a directive for public disclosure of the names of candidates shortlisted for the post of chief information commissioner and information commissioners in the CIC.
It had directed the states, including Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh, to immediately try to fill up the vacant posts in the state information commissions.
Bhushan had alleged that governments were “trying to kill the Right to Information Act” by making information commissions defunct.
He had submitted that the CIC is currently without its chief, and eight out of 10 posts of information commissioners are vacant.
“The backlog of cases in the CIC is nearly 30,000,” he had submitted, and pointed out the violation of earlier orders of the apex court, where it was directed that all vacant posts should be filled up directly.
On January 7, the top court took a dim view of the vacancies in the CIC and state information commissions as it directed the Centre to immediately fill the posts.
Seeking an expeditious selection of information commissioners in the CIC, the apex court had told the Centre that these posts need to be filled at the earliest.
It had criticised the appointments being made only from a particular category of candidates in the CIC and SICs, and mulled taking a judicial note of the fact that only bureaucrats are considered for the appointment in these commissions instead of people from all walks of life.
Activist Bhardwaj and others have submitted that in 2019, the apex court issued seminal directions for filling of posts in the CIC and SICs, but states delayed the selection process and virtually killed the Right to Information Act.
On November 26, 2024, the top court took a stern view on the matter and asked the Centre and states to apprise it of the steps taken to fill the posts.
Since February 2019, the apex court has passed several directions on the need for timely appointments to the transparency watchdog by the Centre and states. It observed that in Jharkhand, Tripura and Telangana, the SICs had become virtually defunct, as there were no information commissioners.
On October 30, 2023, the top court issued a similar directive, noting the 2005 Right to Information law would become a “dead letter” otherwise.
Bhardwaj’s plea said the Centre and states did not follow the apex court’s 2019 judgement on the issues, including timely filling of posts in CIC and SICs.
The top court in December 2019 directed the Centre and state governments to appoint information commissioners in CIC and SICs within three months and asked authorities concerned to publish the names of members of the committee on the selection panel and appointment of information commissioners at the CIC on their websites.
The apex court said information officers should include people of eminence from varied fields.
