Supreme Court directs states to fill up up State Information Commission vacancies

The Supreme Court on Monday directed all State governments to fill up long-pending vacancies in their respective Information Commissions. (Anjali Bhardwaj and ors v. Union of India and ors).A Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra remarked that the persistence of such vacancies would defeat the object of the Right to Information Act (RTI Act)."The failure of the States to fill these vacancies defeats the objective of the RTI Act and the Act will become a dead letter. All states shall take forthwith steps to commence the process of selection for the State Information Commissioners, unless steps have been taken till now."Additional Solicitor General of India Aishwarya Bhati was directed to compile the responses of the states to this end..The apex court was hearing a plea filed by RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj raising grievance against the vacancies in the Central Information Commission as well as several State Information Commissions.Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that states like Telangana had virtually defunct state information commissions, and that many states were not even taking in appeals in such cases..Earlier this month, the Court had directed all state information commissions to establish a hybrid system to hear complaints and appeals under the RTI Act.The commissions must provide parties the choice to opt for hybrid hearings and share video links on the cause list, the Court had ordered. Further, electronic filing must be made efficient and accessible for all litigants..In January 2021, the top court sought the response of the Jharkhand government on a plea seeking appointments to the posts of Chief State Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner in the State.The posts are vacant till date.