The Right to Information process begins with a formal request to a public authority, which must respond within 30 days.
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New Delhi: Over 53,000 complaints and appeals that reached Central and State Information Commissions were returned in one year citing rules, with transparency activists raising concerns over the practice saying it could discourage urban poor and rural households from fighting till the end.
The ‘Report Card on the Performance of Information Commissions in India 2023-24’ showed the Central Information Commission (CIC) and six other State Information Commissions (SICs) returned 53,623 complaints or appeals without passing any order between 1 July, 2023 and 30 June, 2024.
The report said the RTI Act does not prescribe any format for filing an appeal or complaint but the CIC and a section of state governments have prescribed rules, formats and a list of documents for filing appeal or complaints. Some of the rules like those framed by the union government empower the commissions to return the complaint or appeal on this count.
Of the 29 central and state commissions, 19 provided information to the ‘Satark Nagrik Sangathan’ (SNS), which prepared the report, and among them, seven of them were found to have returned 53,623 appeals of complaints during the period. Maharashtra topped the list with returning 14,478 complaints followed by CIC 13,922.
Bihar returned 11,807 cases while Uttar Pradesh had 10,585, Gujarat 1,606, Kerala 1,224 and Mizoram had one.
According to the report, the CIC returned 42 per cent of the complaints and appeals in the past one year. Citing the CIC data, the report said 96 per cent which were returned were not re-submitted after rectifying deficiencies.
“National assessments have shown that a large number of RTI applications emanate from the urban poor and from rural households seeking information about their basic entitlements. In this context, the practice being followed by the CIC and some SICs, of returning a very large number of appeals and complaints without passing any orders, becomes extremely problematic,” the report said.
“It also creates an apprehension that this is perhaps a way of frustrating information seekers in a bid to reduce backlogs in ICs since many people, especially the poor and marginalised, would feel discouraged and often give up if their appeal/complaint is returned,” it said.
Anjali Bhardwaj of SNS said most information seekers navigate the process of filing RTI applications and following up on their own unlike in the courts where people take the help of lawyers.
Against this backdrop, she said it is important that the process should be people-friendly and procedural deficiencies like the absence of an index or page numbering should not be made grounds for returning appeals or complaints under the RTI Rules
“Commissions must facilitate and assist people rather than summarily returning their appeal or complaints,” she added.