[HumJanenge] Pendency in the Central Information Commission

To:
Shri Satyananda Mishra-ji
Chief Information Commissioner of India
Central Information Commission
August Kranti Bhawan
New Delhi

By EMAIL

18-Aug-2012

Respected Sir

On behalf of the members of the "Humjanenge" RTI mailing lists, having
13,971 subscribers, of which I am a Moderator, I am constrained to
report / suggest as follows, in the larger public interest.

Our members are AGGRIEVED that since April 2012 the Hon'ble Commission
has stopped the practice of reporting its monthly disposals and also
the pending backlog on "cic.gov.in" . It is pertinent that the last
disclosed statistics reveal that upwards of 3,000 fresh cases are
being received each month, the monthly disposal is allegedly about
2,000 cases, and the backlog of 25,000 cases would take at least 1
year to clear.

We are now caused to say that the monthly figures published so far are
spurious, fictitious and are not borne out by the number of decisions
independently published on the Commission's other website
"rti.india.gov.in".

To illustrate, the Commission's other website reveals that from
1-July-2012 till today decisions / orders for 2,783 matters have been
published. Our members at cost of great time and personal effort have
determined that about 1310 matters (47%) are either merely a)
transfers to a First Appellate Authority or b) determination that case
has been previously decided.

The net effective disposal rate works out to 1473 matters in 29
effective working days, ie a SHOCKING disposal of ONLY 50 decisions
per day for the Commission as a whole. On the average it appears that
each information Commissioner is only deciding 7 matters per day. At
this rate the pending backlog will take over 3 years to get cleared.

As it seems that none of the Information Commissioners at the present
time are qualified or knowledgeable in Statistical methods, we submit
that the Commission must dispose of at least 300 pending cases every
day if the present backlog has to be cleared within the next 12
months. This translates into about 35 cases each day per Information
Commissioner, including yourself.

Our members are also AGGRIEVED that whereas Information Commissioners
such as Ms. Sushma Singh are promptly disposing of Complaints within
10 days of receipt, other Commissioners, including yourself, take up
to a year to address them. The citizens ought not to be subject to
such arbitrary actions on part of the Commission especially since the
Commission's pro-active disclosure u/s 4(1)(b)(iv) of RTI Act is so
incomplete and evasive on this aspect.

Our members are further AGGRIEVED that whereas enlightened
Commissioners like Smt. Sushma Singh have readily grasped the concept
that Complaints u/s 18 are an EXTRA-ORDINARY remedy needing prompt and
PRIORITY action, the rest of the Commission still persists in equating
Appeals and Complaints as equivalent and according the same priority
to both.

Finally, our members are AGGRIEVED that Mr. Pankaj Shreyaskar, despite
being from the Indian Statistical Service has deliberately suppressed
and manipulated the statistics of disposals by the Hon'ble Commission
to bring about this sorry state of affairs.

We therefore suggest that this email be placed before the Commission
at its next meeting and you exercise your powers under Section 12(4)
of the Act to direct that each Commissioner must endeavour to dispose
of at least 25 cases each day from here on so that some semblance of
sanity is maintained. We also suggest that Mr. Pankaj Shreyaskar be
transferred out and another Statistical Services officer be deputed in
his place.

with best wishes

Sarbajit Roy
New Delhi