RTI appeals may take decades to come up for hearing in some information commissions: Report

New Delhi, Oct 9 (PTI) An appeal or a complaint filed with Telangana State Information Commission on July 1 may come up for hearing nearly 29 years later in 2054, a voluntary group said on Thursday after analysing monthly disposal rate of the information commissions across the country.

The "report card" of information commissions across the country published by Satark Nagrik Sangathan said more than 4 lakh cases are pending in information commissions across India.

The group analysed ongoing monthly disposal rate and capacity of each information commission to deduce the time it will take for an appeal or a complaint filed by a Right to Information Act user.

"Telangana SIC would take an estimated 29 years and 2 months - a matter filed on July 1, 2025 would be disposed in the year 2054. SIC of Tripura, would take an estimated 23 years to dispose a matter and Chhattisgarh would take 11 years. SICs of Madhya Pradesh and Punjab would take 7 years," the report said.

The assessment shows that 18 commissions would take more than a year to dispose an appeal and complaint filed on July 1, it said.

According to the report, 69 per cent of the transparency panels which are responsible for implementation of the RTI Act in the country were found wanting in fulfilling mandatory obligation under the law.

The group said section 25 of the RTI Act obligates each commission to prepare a report on the implementation of the provisions of this Act every year which is to be laid before Parliament or the state legislature.

"20 out of 29 ICs (69 per cent) have not published their annual report for 2023-24," it said.

The information commissions, state and central, are responsible to adjudicate complaints and appeals filed against the government orders on denial of information and implementation of all the provisions of the law.

The RTI Act which ushered in a new era of transparency by giving right to every citizen to seek information from the government through a simple application on a payment of Rs 10 will complete 20 years on October 12.

Three information commissions including the Central Information Commission are functioning without a chief while two -- Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand -- are defunct with not a single information commissioner to adjudicate Right to Information complaints and appeals, a report by a transparency advocacy group said.

The report said 4,13,972 appeals and complaints were pending as on June 30 in the 29 information commissions with backlog of appeals and complaints increasing significantly in recent years.

The group said six out of 29 information commissions were defunct for varying periods of time between July 1, 2024 to October 7, 2025 with Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand continuing to be defunct as on October 7.

"Several ICs were found to be returning a very large number of cases without passing any orders. The CIC returned 38 per cent of the appeals/complaints it received," it said. PTI ABS ZMN