SC cracks whip on states over vacant posts, pendency in information commissions

The bench comprising of Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari was hearing a plea by activist Anjali Bharadwaj who sought implementation of the top court's judgement on filling the vacancies in the State Information commissions.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court has directed all the state governments to file a status report regarding pendency of appeals in the State Information Commissions and the vacancies there.

The bench comprising of Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari was hearing a plea by activist Anjali Bharadwaj who sought implementation of the top court's judgement on filling the vacancies in the State Information commissions.

The judges pulled up the Maharashtra government for not increasing the posts to 11 from eight as per the judgement and for not filling even the vacant positions in the state information commission. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for Bharadwaj told the court that out of the eight posts, four posts still remain vacant and the pending cases have risen to 75,000 from 40,000 in 2019.

The court has asked the Maharashtra government to fill the vacancies within three weeks, adding that it will summon the state Chief Secretary in the event of non-compliance.

CIC posts vacant in Telangana, Nagaland; Jharkhand SIC defunct for over an year

The post of Chief Information Commissioner at the State Information Commissions in Telangana has been lying vacant for over an year. The state previously had informed difficulty in filling the post owing to the COVID-19 situation.

The court on Wednesday ordered the state to fill the position before the next date of hearing.

In Karnataka, eight of the 11 positions have been filled and the state has published advertisements for filling the remaining position in the state information commission.

The top court sought a status report from Kerala since the state has not increased the number of job positions in the state information commission. All existing posts in Kerala SIC are filled.

In Odisha, only two additional posts were created instead of three mandated by the Supreme Court.

The court also directed Nagaland to fill the post of CIC which has been has been lying vacant since January 2021.

The court noted that the state information commission in Jharkhand has become defunct completely and asked the state government to fill the vacancies immediately.

West Bengal did not file any affidavit for which court warned it of imposing costs or summoning the Chief secretary if it failed to do so.

All other states were also directed by the court file status reports.