Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has raised concerns about the government’s failure to fill vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC), accusing it of undermining the Right to Information (RTI) Act by not appointing information commissioners.
Currently, there are eight vacancies for information commissioners in the panel, according to the former Union Minister.
Under the RTI Act, there should be a Chief Information Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners, but currently, there is only the CIC and two Information Commissioners in place, Chidambaram pointed out. He questioned why the eight positions of Information Commissioners are still vacant, suggesting that it may be an attempt to avoid accountability and transparency in the government.
Chidambaram also criticized the central government for amending the RTI Act and changing the rules related to the conditions of service of Information Commissioners, claiming that these actions were aimed at weakening the role of the Commission.
He emphasized that the failure to appoint Information Commissioners hinders the effective functioning of the information commission, causing delays in resolving RTI cases.
The issue of vacant positions in information commissions has even reached the courts. Last year, the High Court directed the Centre and States to fill up the vacancies in the CIC and State Information Commissions (SICs) to prevent the RTI Act from becoming ineffective.
A three-judge Bench led by the Chief Justice of India instructed the Centre to gather data on the sanctioned strength of the CIC and SICs from the States within three weeks.
