Central Information Commission blames government for Right to Information workload

NEW DELHI: How long does it take to get information from a government department under the RTI Act? One or two or maybe six months? If the data available with Central Information Commission (CIC), the final appellate authority for RTI Act, is anything to go by, it could take you over three years to get information or fight wrongful denial of information by a government official.

RTI Act lays down that a government department has to give information to an applicant within a month. In case the applicant is not satisfied, he can go in for first appeal within 30 days and then a second appeal before CIC within a month of the decision of the first appellate authority. The way RTI Act was framed an applicant could get an information maximum in three to six months.

However, over seven years after the enactment of the legislation, CIC is inundated with appeals and has still not heard cases filed in 2010. This increasing pendency has made the chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra give directions to all information commissioners and benches to hear cases filed before December 2010 on priority basis.

Speaking to ET, Mishra confirmed the increasing pendency at CIC. "Yes there are some commissioners who have before them cases which have been pending since 2010. We have given instructions that these cases be heard on priority basis and disposed quickly. Right now at CIC we are hearing cases, which are 8-10 months old, like I am hearing cases filed in 2012. We are trying to bring this wait down to six months for the appellants," Mishra said. He puts the blame for the increasing workload of CIC at the doorstep of the government.