Central Information Commission
Source: The Hindu
The Supreme Court has recently raised the issue of keeping the Right to Information bodies, especially the apex forum of Central Information Commission (CIC) to be manned by only bureaucrats.
Present scenario:
• Huge backlogs of appeals and complaints in many information commissions across the country.
• Due to non-appointment of information commissioners, several information commissions take many months, and in some cases even years, to decide appeals and complaints due to accumulation of pending appeals/complaints, thus defeating the entire object of the RTI Act.
Possible causes behind keeping only bureaucrats in the body:
• There is official bias in favour of bureaucrats and government employees in the process of appointment.
• The selection committee, which shortlists candidates for appointment, is itself composed of government employees.
Contrast with the statutory law:
• This is against the fundamental principles of the Right to Information Act of 2005 which itself requires people from varied domains to man the Commissions.
• Also, the entire RTI mechanism has been choked by rising pendency and growing number of vacancies of Information Commissioners.
About RTI laws:
• RTI law was enacted to ensure accountability in governance. The Commissions are meant to be the law’s eyes and hands to provide information to ordinary people.
• Therefore, the apex court has directed the government to look beyond bureaucrats and appoint professionals from “all walks of life,” including eminent persons with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism as Information Commissioners.
Other issues related to the current appointments:
• It is argued that the search committee showed that out of the five short-listed candidates for the post of Chief Information Commissioner, four had never even applied.
• Of the 14 short-listed candidates for the post of Information Commissioners, two had not applied.
About Central Information Commission (CIC):
• Established in 2005 by Central Government under provisions of Right to Information (RTI) Act (2005).It acts upon complaints from those individuals who have not been able to submit information requests due to either the officer not having been appointed, or because the respective Officer refused to receive the application for information under the RTI Act.
• Composition: The Commission includes 1 Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and not more than 10 Information Commissioners (IC) who are appointed by the President of India.
• Appointment: CIC and members are appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a committee consisting of—Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; a Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister. ... See MoreSee Less
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