RTI completes 19 years, backlog burden on information panels

by Manoranjan Panda

Bhubaneswar: Nineteen years after the Right to Information (RTI) Act -2005 was implemented, the functioning of information commissions is a major bottleneck in the effective implementation of the RTI law. Large backlog of appeals and complaints in many commissions across the country have resulted in inordinate delays in disposal of cases, which render the law ineffective, a report said.

The report card also revealed that a troubling rise in the backlog of appeals and complaints, with over 4 lakh cases piling up across 29 information commissions nationwide as of June 30, 2024.

One of the primary reasons for the backlogs is the failure of Central and State governments to take timely action to appoint information commissions to the Central Information Commission (CIC) and state information commissions (SIC) respectively, cited a report compiled and published by a New Delhi-based citizens’ group Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS).

The annual assessment found that seven state information commissions were non-functioning for at least some time over the last year. Four – Jharkhand, Tripura, Telangana, and Goa – have become completely defunct with no commissioners to hear complaints and second appeals under the RTI.

In October 2023, while hearing a petition regarding vacancies in information commissions, the Supreme Court noted that the failure to fill vacancies is leading to a situation where “the right to information which is recognized under an Act of Parliament becomes a dead letter.”

Performance of information commissions, in terms of exercising their powers to ensure proper implementation of the law, has also been a cause of great concern to the RTI community. Commissions have been found to be extremely reluctant to impose penalties on erring officials for violations of the law. Further, the transparency watchdogs themselves have not had a shining track record in terms of being transparent and accountable to the people of the country, the report added.

The report is part of an effort to undertake ongoing monitoring of the performance of information commissions across the country with the objective of improving the functioning of commissions and strengthening the RTI regime.

The report mentioned that regressive amendments to the RTI Act in the last 5 years, which severely diluted the law, have further underlined the need to scrutinize the functioning of information commissions to ensure that the commissions perform their mandated role of safeguarding people’s right to information.

The 2019 amendments dealt a blow to the autonomy of information commissions by empowering the central government to determine the tenure, salaries and terms of service of all information commissioners in the country. In August 2023, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) was passed which included an explicit provision to amend section 8(1)(j) of the RTI law to exempt all personal information from disclosure.

Further, the DPDP Act deleted the proviso to Section 8(1) which stated that “information which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person”.

The report is primarily based on an analysis of information accessed under the RTI Act, from 29 information commissions including Odisha. A total of 174 RTI applications were filed with SICs and the CIC for data collection. India celebrates RTI Day on October 12 every year.