SC flags govt inaction as Central, State Information Commissions remain paralyzed

By A Representative

On September 26, the Supreme Court heard a case concerning the non-appointment of information commissioners at the Central Information Commission (CIC) and several State Information Commissions. The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising Justice Suryakant and Justice Bagchi.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioners, highlighted that the CIC currently has no Chief Information Commissioner and only two of the ten sanctioned posts of information commissioners are filled. He noted that in a previous hearing on January 7, 2025, the Supreme Court had directed the Union of India to file an affidavit outlining a timeline for filling the eight vacant posts, which had been advertised in August 2024. The government had indicated that appointments would be completed within three months, by April 2025. However, no appointments have been made so far.

The petitioners also pointed out the backlog at the CIC, which has more than 26,800 pending appeals and complaints, with cases taking over a year to be heard.

At the state level, the Supreme Court noted that the Jharkhand State Information Commission has remained non-functional since May 2020. In January 2025, the Court had issued time-bound directions for its revival. Owing to the absence of a Leader of Opposition in the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha, the Court had directed the largest opposition party, BJP, to nominate a member to the Selection Committee specifically for selecting the Chief and other information commissioners, with a timeline of nine weeks for completion.

The matter has now been listed for further hearing on October 27, 2025.

The petitioners in the case (Miscellaneous Application 1979 of 2019) include Anjali Bhardwaj, Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd), and Amrita Johri, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Rahul Gupta.

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