Waiting time for second RTI appeal hearing reduced by half in Maharashtra
17 Nov, 2012In order to bring about more transparency in the governance and to do away with the excessive burden of the pending cases, the State Information Commission (SIC) of Maharashtra has started clearing the long pending cases under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. This move has reduced the average waiting time for the fresh appellants by almost half from more than three years to around 18 months. The state chief information commissioner stated that if things go as per the speculations, the waiting time will reduce to not more than three months by April, 2013.
The state chief information commissioners have already cleared the hearing of the cases pending from 2009 and 2010 comprising a total of 1500 cases. The commission expects to complete the hearing of 859 appeals of 2011 and 1933 appeals of 2012 by April, 2013 after which it will be taking the fresh cases. Delayed supply of information is a cause for concern and many activists have demanded that the period be specified for disposal of second appeals by the Information Commission.