Greeva Garg –
The Supreme Court of India directed the Union as well as the States Government to file reports regarding the vacancies and pendency in applications for the posts in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and the State Information Commissions (SICs).
The petition was filed by the Right to Information Act, 2015 (RTI) activists Anjali Bhardwaj, Amrita Johri and Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh K. Batra in 2018, sought directions for speedy filling up of vacancies at Central and States Information Commissions.
The bench headed by Justice S. Abdul Nazeer issued the directions to Union and all States for filing reports in regard to the plea by RTI activists.
“It appears that the Union of India is resorting to issuing fresh advertisements instead of filling all the advertised vacant posts in a bid to cause undue delay in the appointments thereby frustrating peoples’ Right to Information,” contended the Application.
The Union and States are provided a time frame of four weeks for filing the status report before the Supreme Court. The petitioners are granted liberty to file an additional affidavit.
Appearing for the Union, Additional Solicitor General Madhavi Divan stated that, the process of appointments in the Information Commission was carried out in March 2020 along with a compliance affidavit filed in the Supreme Court.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Petitioners stated that the affidavit by Union was filed a year ago and subsequent directions for the current position of matter should be followed.
However, the Bench stated, “They wanted to be apprised of the latest position.”
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