December 17, 2015
Nadimul Haque demands expeditious appointment of CIC
I like to bring to the attention of the house the delay in the appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner. Sir, this has led to a mounting pendency of cases before the office of the Chief Information Commissioner. Till date, approximately 33000 appeals and complaints are pending before the Central Information Commission out of which 12000 belong to the Chief Information Commission.
Sir, the chief information commissioner is responsible for hearing second appeals and complaints arising out of high offices of the government including the PMO, the President’s Secretariat, and various ministries etc and is appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee constituted by the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition and a member of the cabinet to be appointed or nominated by the Prime Minister.
However, this delay in the appointment of the CIC has led to an indirect denial of information for the aforesaid higher offices which the Government on merits may not be able to deny directly under the RTI Act, 2005. The PM has recently said at the 10th Annual Convention of the CIC that the process of assessing information should be transparent, timely and trouble free, delayed information does not help in solving a problem but increases it.
Sir, in this light i would like to ask that why is the PM not appointing a CIC. Hence, i would request the government to appoint a Chief Information Commissioner expeditiously and in future that the CIC is appointed well in advance before the tenure of the sitting Chief information Commissioner comes to an end.
Thank you sir.
