A Supreme Court order directing all the state government as well as the Centre to fill in the vacant posts of information commissioner is about to end in two days. Yet, Gujarat continues to operate with just two information commissioners even as eight other posts of information commissioners continue to remain vacant.
Anjali Bharadwaj, convener of Satark Nagrik Sangathan who was part of the group that filed a petition in the SC seeking that vacant posts be filled and opacity surrounding the appointments come to an end said that despite the order not much has happened in most states.
She said as far as Gujarat was concerned the government had sanctioned five posts when it has been specifically stated by the apex court that the government has to look at the total vacancies and not bother about sanctioned strengths.
Pankti Jog, an RTI activist, said that in Gujarat even the advertisement seeking applications for the post of information commissioners are not put out in newspapers. "It is put up in some obscure corner of the government website. There is no effort to reveal information about the applicants or even the search committee that is supposed to look for the applicants," said Jog.
A report card of information commissions in India by Satark Nagrik Sangathan found that as on October 31, 2017, was 3941 cases were pending and the estimated time for disposal is five months. Jog said that the present pending cases before the information commission in the state are 5600 which will take a year and two months to be disposed of.
PENALTY A MATTER OF CONCERN?
The RTI activist said that imposition of penalty by information commissioner on information officers who refused to share information was a matter of concern. "Despite there being a provision for a penalty only in 2% of cases in Gujarat have the penalty being imposed. And even in those cases, we have no clue whether the penalty was actually collected or not," said Anjali Bharadwaj.
