At a public event at Constitution Club, New Delhi on Apr. 18, former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan Lokur said the government is weakening the RTI Act, warning that the Data Protection Act (DPA) could shield corruption.
He launched the ‘Report Card of Information Commissions’, prepared by citizens’ group SatarkNagrikSangathan, which shows huge backlogs and delays in RTI appeals.
Justice Lokur stated that the govt. is undermining the RTI Act by not appointing commissioners, leading to long delays and increasing pendency. He also pointed to the 2019 RTI amendments that weakened commission autonomy and criticised DPAfor exempting personal information, thus encouraging corruption.
Wajahat Habibullah, former CIC, echoed these concerns, saying the government is weakening the RTI Act instead of strengthening it to improve governance.
Key findings of the report include:
- 7 out of 29 commissions were non-functional between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
- 2 commissions are still defunct.
- Over 4 lakh cases are pending in commissions across India.
- 14 commissions have wait times of over 1 year.
- 5 commissions had no Chief Commissioner as of October 2024.
- Some commissions returned large numbers of cases without giving any order; CIC returned 42% of appeals.
- Commissioners lack diversity: 57% are retired government officers, only 9% are women, and none of the commissions is led by a woman.
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