From ranking second in the world in 2011 in the Global RTI Rating conducted regularly by the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), a Canada-based non-governmental organisation, along with Access Info Europe, India has slipped to the ninth position, as per the recent update.
Former IPS officer Makarand Madhusudan Ranade and former IAS officers Dr Pradeep Kumar Vyas and Shekhar Manohar Channe will be the new information commissioners.
It’s all good for the opposition political parties to cry foul about the ruling government’s questionable RTI Amendment Act of 2019, wherein the appointment and tenure of information commissioners have been diluted; but what stops the former from tenaciously pursuing it, particularly when the matter is already in the Supreme Court? What stops the SC from putting pressure on the government to respond, when the latter has turned a deaf year to its directive to respond?
The deadline of the first week of February 2024 for filling the vacancies of four state information commissioners (SIC) in Maharashtra as directed by the Bombay High Court has been flouted with none of these appointments having realised; propelling a group of RTI activists, who had filed a public interest litigation (PIL), to dash off a letter to the chief minister, crying contempt of court.