Expressing displeasure, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Government to immediately fill up the vacancies in the Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions. Court also made observations on posting only retired bureaucrats as Information Commissioners, while the law suggests for posting of people from different walks of life.

Asking for an expeditious selection of information commissioners in the CIC, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh told Centre, “These posts need to be filled at the earliest otherwise what is the use of having the institution, if we don’t have people working?”

The bench criticised the appointments being made only from a particular category of candidates in the CIC and SICs, and mulled taking a judicial note on the presence of bureaucrats, and not people from all walks of life, in these Commissions.  “We can take judicial notice of fact that entire Commissions are loaded with only one category of people. Why should only bureaucrats be appointed and why not people from different walks of life are appointed. We don’t want to say more but this needs to be looked into, Justice Surya Kant said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Anjali Bhardwaj and others, said in 2019 the apex court issued seminal directions for filling of posts in the CIC and SICs but states delayed the selection process and virtually killed the Right to Information Act.  While urging the court to summon the secretaries concerned or seek responses, Bhushan submitted the vacancies caused immense hardship to the people using the platform, and the failure of the state governments to appoint people defeated the very purpose of the Act.

The top court, Bhushan said, issued directions for appointment of people from different fields.  The bench directed the Centre to file a status report on the selection process that started in August, 2024, for such posts and explain the timeline of its completion.  The Joint Secretary at Department of Personnel and Training was asked to file an affidavit, indicating when the names of 161 candidates, who applied for the post of information commissioners, would be processed.

 The bench further asked the Centre to disclose the names of candidates, who applied for the post and the criteria for short-listing them in two weeks.  The top court made a serious note of Jharkhand, which did not appoint Information Commissioners despite its repetitive directions on the ground there was no leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha.

The bench said the advertisements for appointment of Information Commissioners in the Jharkhand SIC was issued in June, 2024, but there was no headway. It directed the largest opposition party in Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha to nominate one of its elected members to the selection committee for the limited purpose of choosing the information commissioners and appointments could start thereafter.