Supreme Court ruling brings 5 RTI commissions' work to halt

NEW DELHI: One of the biggest showpiece legislations of UPA - the Right to Information Act (RTI)-is at serious risk of running aground.

The RTI, which compels the government to share information about its functioning with citizens on demand and has since its birth in 2005 become the scourge of politicians and bureaucracy across the country, faces a major challenge with work in 5 of 28 state information commissions hearing appeals coming to a halt. Commissions in Rajasthan, Manipur, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Goa have stopped work after the Supreme Court ordered last September that said only retired high court or apex court judges could be appointed in commissions.

"The state information commissions do not disclose pendency on their websites. So we don't even have a ballpark figure of the number of cases filed and pending since the judgement," says Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). A survey conducted by it reveals that even six months after the verdict the state commissions are skeptical about resuming hearings.

In its order, the top court had said that commissioners in state and central information commissions should have a judicial background. The Information Commissions were also asked to operate in benches of two members, with at least one member having a judicial background. Although the Centre has filed a review petition before the Supreme Court, the Information Commissions fear the decisions taken by them could be challenged in court if they don't operate in two member benches or don't have a judicial member.

After the Supreme Court verdict, the Rajasthan government started the process of appointment of judicial officers, but the process was shelved and the state's Information Commission has no commissioner. In Jharkhand, there is a retired chief justice heading the state commission, but there is no second member and the panel has kept hearings in abeyance.