CIC turns down over 11,000 appeals for insufficient documents

NEW DELHI: Over 11,000 appeals have been rejected by Central Information Commission ( CIC) so far this year as they were not accompanied by the required documents under the Right to Information Act, the government said today.

The RTI Rules 2012, provides that if an appeal is not accompanied by the documents as specified in for removing deficiencies and filing the appeal complete in all respect may be returned to appellant.

"As per record maintained by Central Information Commission since January 2015, 11,328 number of appeals have been turned away," Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

Documents like RTI application submitted to the Central Public Information Officer; reply, if any, received from him, copy of the appeal made to the First Appellate Authority and copy of the order, copies of other documents relied upon by the appellant and referred to in his appeal besides an index of the documents referred to in the appeal are to be submitted duly authenticated and verified by the appellant to the CIC, the rules say.

The RTI Act mandates time-bound response to citizens queries on governance related information.

As per latest data, a total of 33,692 complaints and appeals are pending with the CIC, which is working without its chief. Vijai Sharma demitted office yesterday after completion of his tenure.