Tamil Nadu’s State Information Commission is the worst performer as far as accountability under the RTI Act is concerned, furnishing only 14% of the information sought. Maharashtra was the second worst, sharing 23% of the information sought, according to a report card on the performance of Information Commissions (ICs) in India for 2021-22 by the organization Conscious Citizens.
Only 10 ICs provided complete information in response to RTI applications filed as part of this assessment. These included Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand and the northeastern states of Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura.
The organization said that as part of the assessment, it filed RTI applications with 28 State Information Commissions (SICs) and the Central Information Commission (CIC) to seek information on the functioning of ICs.
“A total of 145 RTI applications were filed seeking similar information from all the 29 ICs. RTI applications were tracked to assess how each IC performed as a public authority in terms of retaining and disclosing information.
“The SIC of Tamil Nadu was the worst performer as it denied most of the information sought, including the number of appeals and complaints disposed of by the IC, details of fines imposed and compensation awarded,” it said that the information can be provided only “after obtaining the approval of the State Legislative Assembly”, although no such provision exists in the RTI Act.
The SIC of Chhattisgarh refused to provide information on several points, saying that under the existing state rules, information can be sought on only one subject in an application, while the SIC of Bihar, which published the assessment in 2020, refused to provide any information under the RTI Act. Failed to provide information. and 2021, significantly improved its performance and presented 67% of the requested information.
The report card further states that a large number of ICs across the country are returning cases without passing orders.
Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh returned about 40% of the appeals or complaints received by them.
Of the 18 information commissioners who provided relevant information, the assessment found that 11 had returned appeals or complaints without passing any orders.
The CICs and SICs of UP, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala returned a large number of appeals/complaints during the period July 2021 to June 30, 2022 without passing any orders. 35,000 during the period under review.
Gujarat’s SIC returned 7,267 appeals or complaints, while it registered 14,966. Andhra Pradesh’s SIC returned 4,856 cases without passing any orders, while it registered 6,044 appeals or complaints, and Kerala’s SIC returned 1,558 appeals or complaints, while it registered 2,929.
During the period under review, the CIC responded to around 12,000 appeals or complaints, while 19,822 were registered.
The report card also found that many ICs have very low disposal rates per commissioner. For example, the SIC of West Bengal had an annual average disposal rate of 222 cases per commissioner – each commissioner effectively disposing of less than one case a day – even though more than 10,000 cases were pending.
Out of all the 29 ICs, only the CIC has adopted a norm regarding the number of appeals or complaints to be disposed of by each Commissioner in a year.