Information officers' callous attitude threatens the Right to Information Act

NEW DELHI: The Right to Information Act is being threatened by its very keepers. Information commissioners are making applicants wait for months for final judgements, especially on politically-sensitive matters.

The working of the Central Information Commission shows that though information commissioners hear the matter, they postpone judgement for months. A case in point is on the question whether political parties should come under RTI. The matter has been under the purview of a three-member bench of CIC for months. The final hearing was held on November 1. However, the bench is yet to give the verdict.

Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra gave administrative reasons for the delay. "In this particular case, an information commissioner was on month's leave. After she returned, the other commissioner has gone off. Now the entire bench is back so we will finally give our order."

RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal encountered a peculiar case where an information commissioner took 9 months to pass an order and changed her mind. Agrawal had applied in April 2011 for a report of a regional director on the basis of which arrests were made in the spectrum scam. "Information Commissioner Sushma Singh verbally allowed my appeal and asked the ministry to reveal these documents. But the final order came to me in February 2013. It said that the matter was under the purview of JPC and PAC so it would be breach of parliamentary privilege." Agarwal is still awaiting two orders pertaining to spectrum scam case. One case was heard in May 2012 and another in October 2012.

Activist RK Jain too is exasperated with delay. Jain has raised basic queries: "How can an information commissioner remember the finer details of a case after so many months? There is a Supreme Court verdict that if there is a delay of more than 6 months after the final hearing, the case has to be reheard. CIC is like a tribunal. So they should also follow this," said Jain. In one case which is pending before an information commissioner for final disposal, Jain says the government official dealing with his case has passed away. "I am so tired of fighting that I have sought withdrawal of my cases," says Jain.