Pendency at the Andhra Pradesh State Information Commission show a jump
10 Mar, 2015
One of the most important ways of ensuring the proper implementation of the RTI Act, 2005 is to make certain that the appeals and complaints filed before the information commission are disposed off at the earliest. The statistics obtained from the Central Information Commission does not present a very healthy picture and it calls for a study of the pendency position at the other information commissions in the states. (for a look at the CIC figures, please refer to Pending cases at CIC jump by over 56 percent during 2014 Read more at: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/pending-cases-cic-jump-over-56-percent-during-2014#.VP5ZGHyUe1U)
A quick look at the figures of the state information commission at the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh shows that the difference between the receipt and disposal of cases is increasing every year.
RTI cases (appeals and complaints)
2012
Cases received: 7,881
Cases disposed: 7,341
2013
Cases received: 10,895
Cases disposed: 9,534
2014
Cases received: 14,066
Cases disposed: 8,874
Jan to March 2015
Cases received: 3099
Cases disposed: 227
The disposal of cases seems to have slowed after the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state was bifurcated and two new governments have taken over as the data shows a fall in disposal of cases. During the period June 2014 to March 2015, the number of cases received was 11,773 while the disposal was merely 5,059. The disposal of cases during the same period in the previous year (between June 2013 to March 2014) stood much higher at 7,937. Further, the disposal of cases between June 2012 to March 2013 was at 7,230. The website of the SIC does not even list the disposal of cases for the year 2014. (link - http://www.apic.gov.in/yearlydisposal.do )
It has been further reported that almost 90 per cent of the public authorities of both states have failed to make pro-active disclosure as per under Section 4(1)(b). A widening gap between the receipt and disposal of cases at the level of Information Commission coupled with poor suo-motu disclosure would spell doom for the RTI Act, 2005.