Senior information commissioner can act as CIC: Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has come to the rescue of RTI applicants waiting to be heard at the Central Information Commission in the absence of a chief. The court has directed that the seniormost information commissioner can hear a case in the absence of the CIC.

Ruling on a writ petition filed by Sushila Kumari, waiting for her case to be heard by CIC, Justice Rajiv Shakdher ruled that the seniormost information commissioner be deputed to dispose of Sushila Kumari’s case.

"I am of the view that the present arrangement would lead to a backlog in the disposal of the matters filed before the Central Information Commission. This arrangement will, broadly, jeopardise the interest of those querists who seek information pertaining to defence matters. Therefore, the writ petition is disposed with a direction that the petitioner’s pending appeal would be taken up for adjudication by the seniormost information commissioner. The information commissioner will attempt to dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as possible, though, not later than 10 weeks from today,"the judge ruled.

CIC’s post has been vacant since Rajiv Mathur retired last August. All the matters, including RTI applications relating to PMO, defence ministry and HRD ministry have been pending since then with the number of pending appeals and complaints mounting to 14,000.

The Central Information Commission, which was represented by Advocate Mrinalini Sen, contended, "Under Section 12(4) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, only the Chief Information Commissioner can categorise the matters and direct the placement of matters before a particular bench."