Supreme Court directs Centre, States to fill vacancies in Central and State Information Commissions

The Supreme Court recently called for filling the vacant posts both in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and in various State Information Commissions (SIC) [Anjali Bhardwaj & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.]. .A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that as per a status report furnished on November 11 this year, eight posts in the CIC are lying vacant and only three Information Commissioners (ICs) are currently in service.Thus, it directed the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Brijender Chahar to file a status report within two weeks, specifically informing the Court of the initiative taken to fill up the vacant posts in the CIC. Further, the Court also noted that several posts are lying vacant in the various SICs, including seven in Maharashtra, eight in Karnataka, two in Chhattisgarh, one in Bihar, four in West Bengal, five in Odisha and two in Tamil Nadu.Additionally, it noted,"In the States of Jharkhand, Telangana and Tripura, the State Information Commissions are lying defunct for the last several years, as no fresh appointments have been made therein, a factum which this Court also adverted to in the order dated 30.11.2023."Thus, it issued directions to all the aforesaid States to file a status report within two-weeks time detailing the Court on how quickly the appointments to the vacant posts will be made. Moreover, the Court directed all remaining States in India to submit status reports detailing the total number of sanctioned posts in their respective SICs and the number of vacancies that currently exist. "They shall also undertake the time within which the selection process will be initiated and the vacant posts will be filled-up. The needful shall be done within two weeks," the Bench added. .The top court passed the aforesaid directions on November 26 while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj and other petitioners who raised grievances against various posts lying vacant in the CIC as well as the SICs. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioners, told the Court about these vacancies as per the information furnished on November 11.The Court after considering the submissions before it, issued directions in regard to filling of vacant posts in the CIC and the SICs as well.It listed the matter to be heard next on December 17, 2024. .The Court has, in this regard, passed directions on earlier occasions as well. In a similar plea filed by the same litigants last year, the Court had remarked that the persistence of such vacancies would defeat the object of the Right to Information Act (RTI Act). .In a 2019 judgment, the Court had issued detailed directions to ensure timely and transparent appointments to Information Commissions. .Advocates Prashant Bhushan, Rahul Gupta, Tishampati Sen, Riddhi Sancheti, Anurag Anand and Mukul Kulhari appeared for the petitioners.Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Brijender Chahar, Senior Advocate Arunabh Choudhary and advocates Arvind Kumar Sharma, Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, Pallavi Langar, Madhumita Bhattacharjee, G. N. Reddy, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Nishe Rajen Shonker, Gaurav Khanna, V N Raghupathy, Devina Sehgal, Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, Rajesh Ranjan, Astha Singh, Rajan Kr Chourasia, Amit Sharma, Vaishali Verma, Pragya Baghel, Sujeet Kumar Chaubey, Debarati Sadhu, Srija Choudhury, Anant, Bharat Bagla, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Anu K Joy, Alim Anvar, Natasha Sahrawat, Gautam Barnwal, Deepali Bhanot, Rudraksh Pandey, Alisha Roy, Vishwanath P Allannavar, Mythili S, Yatharth Kansal, Karun Sharma, Rajkumari Divyasana, Indrajit Prasad represented the respondents..[Read Order]