Massive vacancies and backlogs cripple India’s information commissions: Report

By A Representative

Nearly two decades after the Right to Information (RTI) Act came into force, the institutions meant to safeguard this fundamental right are facing a severe crisis. The Report Card on the Performance of Information Commissions in India, 2024–25, released by Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), reveals alarming levels of vacancies, case backlogs, and institutional dysfunction across the country.

According to the report, several State Information Commissions (SICs) and the Central Information Commission (CIC) are either non-functional or operating at drastically reduced capacity. As of October 2025, two commissions—Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh—were completely defunct, while three others were functioning without a Chief Information Commissioner. The CIC itself has been headless since September 2025, marking the seventh such vacancy in eleven years.

The study found that 4.13 lakh appeals and complaints were pending nationwide as of June 30, 2025—an increase from 3.88 lakh the previous year. Maharashtra had the highest number of pending cases at over 95,000, followed by Karnataka with 47,825 and Tamil Nadu with 41,059. The report estimates that, at current disposal rates, a new RTI appeal filed in Telangana could take nearly 29 years to be resolved, while in Tripura the waiting period is 23 years. Even at the national level, the CIC is estimated to take over a year to dispose of a case.

SNS notes that delays are largely due to persistent vacancies and the low disposal rates of commissioners. Despite the Supreme Court’s 2019 directions to ensure timely appointments, many posts remain unfilled for months or years. The failure to appoint commissioners, the report warns, risks turning the citizens’ right to information into a “dead letter.”

The assessment also found that commissions are reluctant to penalize officials who violate the RTI Act. Of over 1.8 lakh cases disposed of during the period studied, penalties were imposed in just 1.2 percent. The Chhattisgarh commission imposed the highest penalties, totaling ₹1.06 crore, followed by Karnataka and Bihar. However, SNS estimates that penalties could have been applicable in up to 59 percent of the cases reviewed, meaning that commissions failed to act in 98 percent of instances where they could have.

Transparency within the commissions themselves remains weak. Twenty of the 29 commissions have not published their annual reports for 2023–24, despite a legal mandate under Section 25 of the RTI Act. The Telangana and Andhra Pradesh commissions have not published a single report since their establishment in 2017.

The report concludes that these systemic failures—ranging from unfilled posts and procedural obstacles to lack of accountability—undermine the very purpose of the RTI law, which was enacted to promote transparency and empower citizens to hold governments accountable. SNS called for urgent reforms, including timely appointments, proactive disclosure of information, and stronger enforcement of penalties, to revive India’s transparency regime.

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