3 months ago
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The Supreme Court connected Tuesday (February 10, 2026) mooted whether the Chairpersons of Human Rights Commissions of States with debased postulation of Right to Information (RTI) appeals could beryllium fixed further work of acting arsenic Chief Information Commissioners (CICs) till determination is an summation successful workload.
“Suppose it is conscionable 100 appeals pending successful a State Information Commission... Any instauration you make is simply a load connected the nationalist exchequer. Taxpayers’ wealth indispensable beryllium spent connected improvement activities oregon something... Why not successful specified States, arsenic an ad-hoc mechanism, the powerfulness of the Information Commissions beryllium fixed to the State Human Rights Commissions?” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, asked advocates Prashant Bhushan and Rahul Gupta for the petitioners.
The tribunal was proceeding a petition filed by petitioners Anjali Bhardwaj, Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired) and Amrita Johri, seeking timely and transparent appointments to the Information Commissions nether the RTI Act.
Chief Justice Kant remarked that State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) were headed by erstwhile judges, if not retired Chief Justices of the High Courts.
The Chief Justice said the “ad-hoc mechanism” could proceed till the fig of RTI appeals increases successful “due people of time” and “justifies the instauration of an autarkic Information Commission”.
The CJI said, successful the meanwhile, for the interregnum erstwhile the full and wide pendency of RTI appeals was low, the “creation of a abstracted institution” whitethorn not beryllium justified.
Mr. Bhushan said Information Commissions enactment arsenic autarkic institutions enforcing the people’s cardinal close to know. These Commissions clasp governments and its agencies accountable and request transparency.
Information Commissions person been made defunct done vacancies successful the station of Information Commissioners for years together. The fig of RTI appeals person been reduced to a trickle, and successful immoderate States, to thing arsenic they are not being accepted. People person stopped filing appeals arsenic determination was nary functioning Information Commission successful their State, helium submitted.
“When radical spot that their appeals cannot beryllium decided, they people halt filing appeals,” Mr. Bhushan submitted.
A illustration produced by the petitioners showed that State Information Commissions similar successful Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh person go “defunct” with neither Information Commissioners appointed nor immoderate appeals being filed.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ordered the Union authorities to record a presumption study connected the caller appointments made to the Central Information Commission (CIC).
However, Mr. Bhushan pointed retired that records similar the minutes of gathering of the high-powered enactment committee chaired by the Prime Minister and the dissent enactment of the Leader of Opposition of the Lok Sabha were not placed successful the nationalist domain.
