Plea in SC for urgent hearing of PIL for filling up CIC vacancies

A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking urgent hearing of the PIL seeking directions to government authorities for implementing the top court's directions regarding the appointment of Information Commissioners within a stipulated period of time.

New Delhi:An RTI activist has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking urgent hearing of the PIL pertaining to vacancies in the Central Information Commission, alleging that the Centre did not comply with the court's orders of filling the vacancies leading to rising pendency of cases.

Earlier on December 16, 2019, the apex court had directed the central government to fill the vacancies in the Central Information Commission within 3 months, which as per the petitioner, the Centre has not yet done.

The petitioner Anjali Bharadwaj contended that advertisements had invited applications for filling four vacant posts, out of which only one Information Commissioner was appointed, that too the chief.

However, the Union of India denied that it has failed to comply with the orders and told the court that it completed the appointments within three months as per the directions.

With the retirement of the chief and another commissioner, currently, there are six vacancies which has led to the pendency of over 36,000 cases.

Read:Polls amid COVID-19: Govt enhances expenditure limit of candidates

"It is further submitted that it appears 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 people's right to information," read the plea.

The petitioner further alleged that even the state governments failed to comply with an order dated February 15, 2019, wherein the court had directed the Centre and the states to fill vacancies in central and state information commissions.

Maharashtra was functioning with five commissioners with a backlog of 60,000 cases as of July 31, 2020 and Odisha was functioning with four commissioners with a backlog of 15,000 appeals.

"Urgently list the matter for hearing," the petitioner prayed.

Read:India to introduce machine learning in schools: Education Minister