'Why not people from different walks of life,' asks Supreme Court on vacancies in information commissions

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh expressed its discontent at appointments being made only from a particular category of candidates in the commissions

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the central government to immediately fill vacant posts in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions (SICs).

The top court also asked why only bureaucrats should be appointed to these posts instead of giving people from 'different walks of life' a chance to be appointed as well.

The bench, of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh, expressed its discontent at appointments in the commissions being made only from a particular category of candidates and pointed out that the commissions were being loaded with people from this select pool.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing petitioner Anjali Bhardwaj and others, contended that the court in 2019 had issued seminal directions for filling of posts in the CIC and SICs but states had delayed the selection process. He claimed that this has virtually killed the Right to Information Act and the vacancies have caused immense hardship to the people using the platform.

The bench emphasised on the expeditious selection of information commissioners in the CIC.

"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 asked.

Bhushan asked the court to either summon the secretaries concerned or seek responses. He also pointed out that the court had earlier issued directions for appointment of people from different fields.

The bench directed the central government to file a status report on the selection process, which began in August 2024, and also explain the timeline of its completion.

The bench asked the joint secretary at Department of Personnel and Training to file an affidavit regarding the completion of the process for the 161 candidates who had applied for the post of information commissioners, and also disclose the names of the candidates and the criteria for short-listing them in two weeks.

The bench noted that the advertisements for appointment of information commissioners in the Jharkhand SIC was issued in June 2024, but no progress has been made so far.

The court asked 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 rest of the appointments could start thereafter.

The bench directed other state governments to notify the list of applicants within one week in addition to the composition of the selection committee and the criteria used to shortlist candidates, and the timeline for conducting the interview and appointments.

In November last year, the court asked the Centre and states to apprise it about the steps taken to fill the posts.

The plea claimed that the Centre and states did not follow the apex court's 2019 judgment on the issues including timely filling of posts in CIC and SICs.