‘Surest way to cause a death blow to RTI Act,’ says P Chidambaram questioning 8 vacant information commissioner posts

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has questioned the government on vacancies in Central Information Commission (CIC) accusing it of dealing a ‘death blow’ to the Right to Information (RTI) Act by not appointing information commissioners.

At present, the former Union Minister said, eight vacancies of information commissoners are vacant in the panel.

“The Central Information Commission should have, under the RTI Act, a Chief Information Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners. At present, there are in place only the CIC and two Information Commissioners,” Chidambaram said in a pist on X.

“Eight posts of Information Commissioners are vacant Why? Is it because the RTI Act has been used to pierce the veil of the government and hold the government to account?,” he asked.

According to the RTI Act, the CIC shall consist of the Chief Information Commissioner and such number of Central Information Commissioners not exceeding 10 as may be deemed necessary. The same holds true for State Information Commissions (SIC).

The central government amended the RTI Act and changed the rules governing the conditions of service of Information Commissioners – all with the intention of crippling the role of the RTI Act, Chidambaram alleged

“The surest way to cause a death blow to the RTI Act is to not appoint Information Commissioners,” said.

The vacancies hinder the smooth functioning of the information commission, leading to delays in resolving RTI cases, the Congress leader said.

The surest way to cause a death blow to the RTI Act is to not appoint Information Commissioners.

The vacant positions in information commissions have reached the courts too. In October last year, the Supreme Court directed the Centre and the States to immediately take steps to fill up vacancies in the CIC and SICs before they became “defunct” and rendered the citizens’ right to know under the RTI Act a “dead letter”.

A three-judge Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud gave the Centre three weeks to collate data from the States on the sanctioned strength of the CIC and SICs.