SC seeks status report on Information Commissioners

The apex court has directed the central government and state governments to place the updated status report regarding vacancies of Information Commissioners within four weeks.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the central government and state governments to place the updated status report regarding vacancies of Information Commissioners within four weeks. The apex court had issued notice on the plea regarding appointments back in 2019.

The bench led by Justice Abdul Nazeer was informed today that there are many vaccines in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha, West Bengal since long.

"Despite repeated directions, there are still vacancies. Not only that, what they have done is quite shocking. The government should have presented the status on record before the court," argued Prashant Bhushan, petitioner's advocate.

He told the court that there are some journalists who have been appointed as Information Commissioner and raised question over the criteria. "Basically, a party journalist was appointed as Information Commissioner," submitted Bhushan.

The Centre opposed this argument saying that there cannot be any accusations or journalists cannot be called bogus. The court will hear the matter again after a month and till then affidavits are to be filed.