New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday took a dim view of the vacancies in the Central Information Commission and state information commissions while directing the Centre to immediately fill posts.
Asking for an expeditious selection of information commissioners in the CIC, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh told Centre, “These posts need to be filled at the earliest otherwise what is the use of having the institution, if we don’t have people working?”
The bench criticised the appointments being made only from a particular category of candidates in the CIC and SICs, and mulled taking a judicial note on the presence of bureaucrats, and not people from all walks of life, in these commissions.
“We can take judicial notice of fact that entire commissions are loaded with only one category of people. Why should only bureaucrats be appointed and why not people from different walks of life are appointed. We don’t want to say more but this needs to be looked into, Justice Surya Kant said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Anjali Bhardwaj and others, said 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.
While urging the court to summon the secretaries concerned or seek responses, Bhushan submitted the vacancies caused immense hardship to the people using the platform, and the failure of the state governments to appoint people defeated the very purpose of the Act.
The top court, Bhushan said, issued directions for appointment of people from different fields.
The bench directed the Centre to file a status report on the selection process that started in August, 2024, for such posts and explain the timeline of its completion.
The joint secretary at Department of Personnel and Training was asked to file an affidavit, indicating when the names of 161 candidates, who applied for the post of information commissioners, would be processed.
The bench further asked the Centre to disclose the names of candidates, who applied for the post and the criteria for short-listing them in two weeks.
The top court made a serious note of Jharkhand, which did not appoint information commissioners despite its repetitive directions on the ground there was no leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha.
The bench said the advertisements for appointment of information commissioners in the Jharkhand SIC was issued in June, 2024, but there was no headway.
It directed the largest opposition party in Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha to nominate one of its elected members to the selection committee for the limited purpose of choosing the information commissioners and appointments could start thereafter.
The bench directed other states having vacancies in the their respective commissions to notify the list of applicants within one week apart from the composition of the selection committee, criteria to shortlist candidates and the timeline for conducting the interview and appointments.
The bench further directed the chief secretaries of states to furnish information on the vacancies and asked them to file compliance affidavits over appointments made.
“The states where appointments have been made will submit compliance affidavits to the extent of list of candidates who applied, composition of search committee, criteria adopted for shortlisting and appointment notifications,” it said.
On November 26, 2024, the bench took a stern view on the matter and asked the Centre and states to apprise it about the steps taken to fill the posts.
Since February 2019, the apex court passed several directions on the need for timely appointments to the transparency watchdog by the Centre and states.
The court observed 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 posts in CIC and SICs.
The top court in December 2019 directed the Centre and state governments to appoint information commissioners within three months in CIC and SICs 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.
