Central information commissioners lag in hearing cases

The central information commission (CIC) is lagging when it comes to reaching the targets set by itself. An audit of sorts conducted on the number of cases disposed by them states that they have not completed the halfway mark they should have. The audit was done by former central information commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi.

The central information commission has over 28,000 cases as of June 30, 2014. To ensure that there is a certain number of disposals, in 2011, all the commissioners decided that each commissioner will clear 3,200 appeals.

However, an audit of the first six months of performance of the CIC shows that the half way mark – 1,600 – has not been reached. "At this rate, they will need about 18 months to clear the present backlog of 24,834 cases. In 2011, when there were only 6 central information commissioners, the annual disposal was 22,513 giving an average of 3,752 per commissioner. Eight commissioners this year will do less work (16,970) than six commissioners did (22,513) in 2011. If citizens are not vigilant, the commissions will become less accountable and RTI will work with reduced efficacy. It is possible to clear 6,000 cases per year," said Gandhi.

When contacted, Rajiv Mathur, central chief information commissioner said, "I am slightly tied up. I will talk to you later." dna could not reach him again for comments.

cases heard by commissioners till June 2014
Vijai Sharma - 1441
Rajiv Mathur - 1022
Basant Seth - 1311
Yashowardhan Azad - 791
Sharat Sabharwal - 953
Manjula Prasher - 942
M A Khan Yusufi - 730
Madhusudhan Sridhar Acharyulu - 1295