The chief central information commissioner's post has been vacant for close to a month now and this will delay indefinitely the hearing of RTI queries relating to some critical departments like the Prime Minister's Office, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Central Vigilance Commission.
The post became vacant following the retirement of Rajiv mathur on August 22, 2014. Mathur, a former Intelligence Bureau chief, headed the commission for only three months.
This is the first time that the post has been vacant since the commission was established nearly a decade ago.
In the absence of the chief of the commission, hearing of second appeals would suffer the most. It is also hampering all administrative work.
"Since they have not even given the charge of the post to anybody nothing can possibly happen," said Shailesh Gandhi.
The website of the central information commission (CIC) states that the chief deals with most of the crucial departments where RTI applications are sent.
Among these departments are also the secretariat of the president and the vice-president, the cabinet secretariat, parliament, the Supreme Court, high courts and the election commission.
The website states that there are more than 8,200 appeals pending before the CIC. But they cannot be heard as they must be allotted by the chief commissioner or transferred to other benches, said AK Dash, additional registrar at the commission.
Bhaskar Prabhu, leading RTI activist said, "Ideally they should speed up the appointment or appoint someone in charge during the intervening period. The reason given for holding up the appointment that there is no leader of the opposition doesn't stand. As per the RTI Act the leader of the party with the most number of seats in the opposition must be involved in the appointment of the chief commissioner and this should have been done."
"If they (government) feel that transparency has to continue they should take a decision sooner," said Prabhu, who is co-convenor of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information. The organisation has also written to the government on this matter.
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