CHENNAI: While the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, was intended to widen citizens’ access to government records, Tamil Nadu’s top RTI post has remained largely within the administrative services, with all six Chief Information Commissioners appointed since 2006 having retired from IAS or IPS backgrounds.
The RTI Act, however, provides for a much wider pool, allowing eminent persons with knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media, administration and governance to be considered for the post.
The composition of the wider State Information Commissioner has been more diverse, with commissioners drawn from the legal and judicial fields, academia, medicine and government services. RTI activist and advocate C Anand Raj has flagged a lack of representation for fields such as journalism and social service by filing a petition to the governor and the President of India.
According to Anand, of the 28 State Information Commissioners appointed in Tamil Nadu, 10 had administrative-service backgrounds, and 14 were from the legal field. He said none were from social service, journalism, mass media or science and technology, despite the Act mentioning these fields.
The Supreme Court, in 2018, while examining the appointment of Information Commissioners, questioned the repeated selection of candidates from government service and observed that “official bias in favour of its own class is writ large in the selection process.”
Anand, who has filed more than 5,000 RTI applications and supported over 100 public interest litigations, is among those who sought to apply for the post. He said that insufficient publicity for the recruitment prevented many from applying.
He added that the state should consider appointing younger candidates, following precedents in Andhra Pradesh where a 35-year-old was appointed A 2025 assessment of Information Commissions showed that TN’s pending appeals and complaints stood at 41,059 as of June 30, 2025 with the state having the third-highest pendency among commissions assessed. Anand Raj estimates the figure could have since risen to around 45,000.
The state too had cited “ever-increasing pendency” while increasing the sanctioned strength of State Information Commissioners from six to eight in December 2025. Yet, the commission has only five at present.
S Prabakar, an advocate who frequently files RTI applications, said, “If an RTI application does not receive a proper response, one has to file a first appeal with the higher authority in the same department and then wait for 90 days before filing a second appeal.”
