NEW DELHI: Even as 42 of the 165 posts of information commissioners remain vacant at the Central Information Commission (CIC) and its counterparts in the states, more than 4.2 crore RTI applications were filed and 26 lakh second appeal/complaints were registered before the watchdog bodies in 2022, the Transparency International India’s (TII) latest report unveiled on Tuesday.
While the vacant posts include two chief state information commissioners, the state bodies have a representation of only 5 percent women information commissioners, the report said, adding that the RTI regime was “yet to adapt to the pace of technology/digitalisation”.
Pointing out that the implementation of the 2005 RTI Act “has not been uniform across the country”, the report said that the “mindset and culture amongst a majority of government functionaries and public authorities is still set in the era of secretive functioning of government”.
The Centre received the most number of RTI applications in 2022, at 1.19 crore, with Maharashta a distant second at 86.06 lakh, followed by Tamil Nadu (36.99 lakh) and Kerala (32.82 lakh). The Tamil Nadu information commission, however, led in receiving the most number of second appeals and complaints (475,299), followed by Maharashtra (395,354) and the Central Information Commission (343,506).
Upon releasing the report, Transparency International India Director Rama Nath Jha said that “the huge pendency of appeals/complaints” was reflected in the average waiting period of two years at the information commissions.
He added that not only were the commissions “becoming parking lots for retired bureaucrats”, the “casual attitude” of PIOs/First Appellate Authority, while rejecting RTI applications was a “major challenge”.
TII’s study revealed that only 11 out of 29 information commissions at the central, state and UT level provide e-filing facility for RTI applications and appeals, of which, only five of these were functional.
It stated that the central government must urgently intervene to improve procedures at the information commissions.
