Current Composition of and Vacancies in the Information Commissions
14 May, 2012Article 1 of a series of articles regarding the Information Commissions of India
Ordinarily, Information Commissioners serve for a term of five years or until they reach the age of sixty-five. In all Information Commissions the first batch of Commissioners appointed between 2005-06 has moved out and new appointments are being made, albeit at a slow pace.
CHRI undertook a rapid study of the membership of all Information Commissions as well as the background of individuals currently serving as Information Commissioners. The PRIA and RAAG studies formed the baseline for this rapid study. The Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission is included in the current study even though it was established under a separate law, namely, J&K Right to Information Act, 2009 and did not exist in 2007. Many parameters relating to the working of Information Commissions were a part of the study. This article presents the study regarding number of vacancies in Information Commissions (as on 01 May, 2012)
Current Composition of and Vacancies in the Information Commissions
Sections 12(2) and 15(2) of the Central RTI Act permit the establishment of Information Commissions comprising of one Chief Information Commissioner and a maximum of ten
Information Commissioners at the Central and State level, respectively. The J&K RTI Act however permits the establishment of a three-member State Information Commission only (10 Section 12(1), J&K RTI Act, 2009). The Karnataka State Information Commission and the Central Information Commission were the first such bodies to be set up under the Central RTI Act in 2005. The State Information Commission of Arunachal Pradesh was the last to be established almost a year later in 2006.
The Central Information Commission was amongst the first multi-member bodies to be established while most States created single-member Information Commissions. Today, with the exception of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim all other Information Commissions have two or more members including Chief Information Commissioners. These three States continue to have single-member Commissions. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have expanded their Information Commissions to nine and ten member bodies, respectively.
The criteria adopted for choosing the initial size of a Commission or expanding it later are not available in the public domain. Before an Information Commission is constituted by appointment of members, it must be established first. The Information Commissions, with the exception of J&K State Information Commissions were established as one or two-member bodies. However it is not clear whether the body was expanded by creating more posts of Information Commissioners, or if candidates were simply appointed to the Commission without observing the formality of expanding it. When we tried to locate the statutory orders expanding the Commissions, staff in some Commissions advised filing of RTI applications completing ignoring the fact that this information ought to be proactively disclosed under Section 4(1)(b) Every public authority shall publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,- (i) the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties; (ii) the powers and duties of its officers and employees; (iii) the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability; (iv) the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions; (v) the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions; (vi) a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control; (vii) the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof; (viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public; (ix) a directory of its officers and employees; (x) the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations; (xi) the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made; (xii) the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes; (xiii) particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it; (xiv) details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form; (xv) the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use; (xvi) the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers; (xvii) such other information as may be prescribed and thereafter update these publications every year; of the Central RTI Act.
Under the two RTI laws a maximum of 311 posts may be created in 29 Information Commissions across the country. According to our study, only 117 posts have been created so far. The vacancy statistics are given below.
Main findings of the study:
- 30% of the posts of Information Commissioners in the States are lying vacant (as on 01 May 2012). Only 83 Information Commissioners (including Chief Information Commissioners) have been appointed against a maximum of 117 posts in 29 Information Commissions.
- Jharkhand has the maximum number of vacancies in an Information Commission (six) followed by Tamil Nadu (four). Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have three vacancies each.
- Three posts of State Chief Information Commissioners in Maharashtra, Manipur and Tripura have not been filled up yet. State Information Commissioners are officiating as heads of those Information Commissions.
Table 1: Vacancies in the Information Commissions
S. No. |
Information Commission |
As constituted originally |
Expanded to |
Current strength |
Vacancies |
1 |
Central Information Commission
|
5 |
9 |
9 |
- |
2 |
Assam |
2 |
- |
1 |
1 |
3 |
Arunachal Pradesh |
4 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Andhra Pradesh
|
1 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
Bihar
|
3 |
- |
3 |
0 |
6 |
Chhattisgarh |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
Goa |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
8 |
Gujarat |
1 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
9 |
Haryana
|
1 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
10 |
Himachal Pradesh |
1 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
11 |
Jharkhand |
7 |
- |
1 |
6 |
12 |
Karnataka |
3 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
13 |
Kerala |
1 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
14 |
Madhya Pradesh |
1 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
15 |
Maharashtra
|
1 |
7 |
4 |
3 (including SCIC’s post) |
16 |
Manipur 1 2 1 1
|
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 (including SCIC’s post) |
17 |
Meghalaya 1 - 1 0 |
1 |
- |
1 |
0 |
18 |
Mizoram 1 - 1 0
|
1 |
- |
1 |
0 |
19 |
Nagaland
|
1 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
20 |
Odisha |
2 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
21 |
Punjab |
1 |
9 |
7 |
2 |
22 |
Rajasthan |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
23 |
Sikkim |
1 |
- |
1 |
0 |
24 |
Tamil Nadu |
1 |
7 |
3 |
4 |
25 |
Tripura
|
3 |
- |
1 |
2 (including SCIC’s post) |
26 |
Uttarakhand
|
1 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
27 |
Uttar Pradesh |
1 |
10 |
7 |
3 |
28 |
West Bengal |
1 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
29 |
Jammu and Kashmir |
1 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
|
TOTAL |
50 |
99+18 =117 |
83 |
34 |
SCIC = State Chief Information Commissioner
Source: A Rapid Study of Information Commissions Established Under the Right to Information Laws in India; Research Team - Venkatesh Nayak and Amikar Parwar with inputs from Nandita Sinha; Editor - Maja Daruwala; Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)