The Supreme Court on Thursday pierced the virtual glass ceiling in Central Information Commission and State Information Commissioners by directing the government to not confine appointments to bureaucrats.
The government should not restrict the focus of appointments of Central Information Commissioner, information commissioners to just retired bureaucracy when the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 itself allows talent and experience to be drawn from a vast pool of professions and fields, a Bench led by Justice A.K. Sikri said.
The court equated the status of the Central Information Commissioner to that of the Chief Election Commissioner, ensuring autonomy to the statutory office under the RTI Act.
The court directed that the criteria and guidelines of the Search Committee, which scopes out candidates for appointment as information commissioners, should be made public.
The process to fill up a vacancy should start two months before retirement is due.
The court gave the government (Centre and States) two or three months more to fill up existing vacancies if they have already started the process. In case the process has not begun, the court gave them six months.
The court noted that the Centre has already commenced the process of appointments and have issued advertisements. The Bench said, however, the strength of information commissioners in the States is “less”.
The judgment comes on petitions highlighting the vacancies in information commissions across the country and the need for transparency in the appointment process to these bodies set up under the Right to Information Act.
The court had reserved the petitions for judgment on January 29. It had on that day asked the government why the information bodies, especially the apex forum of Central Information Commission (CIC), are almost completely manned by bureaucrats.
Justice Sikri, who is retiring on March 7, had pointed out that the law required people with a range of experience and from various fields to serve as information commissioners.
The petitioners like activists, Anjali Bhardwaj and Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra had alleged in their petitions that the Centre and the State governments “have attempted to stifle the functioning of the Right to Information Act by failing to do their statutory duty of ensuring appointment of commissioners in the Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions in a timely manner.”
They had highlighted the “huge backlogs of appeals and complaints in many information commissions” and the delay in hearing and deciding appeals for information filed by the common man.
