On Wednesday, the Apex Court directed the Centre & State Govts to file the latest compliance report within a period of 4 weeks regarding the timely & transparent appointment of Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission (CIC) under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
"The Union of India & all the other state governments are directed to file the latest compliance report within a period of four weeks from today. Petitioner is also permitted to file an additional affidavit," the Bench said in its order while posting the matter for hearing after 4 weeks.
A bench headed by Justice Abdul Nazeer granted 4 weeks to the Govts on a plea seeking directions to the Govt authorities for implementing the Supreme Court's directions in the 2019 judgment. The Court in the order also directed the Govts to file the updated report saying the present status of vacancies.
By its 2019 order, the Supreme Court had passed a slew of directions to the Central & State Govts to fill vacancies across Central & State Information Commissions in a transparent & timely manner. In its order, the court had given three months to the Centre to fill the vacancies that existed in the CIC.
The Supreme Court had also directed the authorities concerned to put on the website the names of members of the search committee, meant for selection & appointment of CIC's information commissioners (ICs), within 2 weeks.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner activist Anjali Bhardwaj submitted that despite repeated directions from the court there are still three vacancies & the government ought to have put a present status on record. Their criteria of selection, etc, nothing has been placed on record, he added.
Bhushan contended that more than 300 people had applied for the vacancies & they shortlisted seven people but details of others weren't on record at all. Criteria for selecting people for the search committee should be made public but it was not given to the leader of opposition too, he argued.
Bhushan further told the Bench that posts are vacant & pendency is going.
Bhushan alleged, "RTI Act was brought in accordance with several
judgements to effectuate Right to Information, but the whole RTI Act is
being destroyed. Either the posts are vacant or they fill them up with
party supporters who can shield their acts,"
Additional Solicitor General Madhavi Divan appearing for the Centre
submitted that a compliance affidavit was filed in April 2020.
Divan said that "Their grievance was that persons had not been appointed. That process was carried & appointments were made in March 2020".
ASG Divan clarified that there are seven members in CIC now apart from the Chairperson.
SOURCE ; //www.latestlaws.com
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