The dismal state of transparency in Indian governance

Completing 17 years in existence on Wednesday, the transparency regime in the country still paints a dismal picture as analysis by private watchdogs point out that Information Commissions are not at all functional in at least two states, one in every four posts of Information Commission remain vacant and there is a steady rise in pending appeals and complaints.

The 'Report Card on the Performance of Information Commissions in India 2021-22' by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) showed Information Commissions are "completely defunct" at present in Jharkhand -- for the past 29 months -- and Tripura -- 15 months.

Information Commissions in four states – Manipur (44 months), West Bengal (4 months), Andhra Pradesh (3 months) and Telangana (2 months) – are headless.

Another report 'State Transparency Report 2022' by Transparency International India put the vacancies at 42 against a total of 165 posts of Information Commissioners. The vacancies reported by last year’s report was 36.

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The SNS report raised concern over the reduced capacity of Information Commissioners at a time the appeals and complaints are "steadily increasing" -- 3.14 lakh cases were pending in 26 Information Commissions from where data was available as on June 30 this year.

It computed the time Commissions would take to dispose of an appeal taking into account average monthly disposal rate.

At this rate, the report said, West Bengal with a pendency of 10,339 would take around 24 years and three months to dispose of an appeal filed on July 1 this year. Though Odisha has almost double the number in the pending list, it will take only five years and four months to dispose of an appeal if the current rate of disposal is factored in.

Maharashtra, which has the highest number of pending appeals at 99,772, will take five years and three months to dispose of an appeal while Uttar Pradesh with second highest pending appeals at 44,482 could take one year and two months to clear a pending appeal.

Karnataka is at third when it comes to pending appeals – 30,358 – could take one year and two months to dispose of one appeal.

According to the SNS report, several Information Commissions were non-functional or were functioning at reduced capacity.

"This is particularly concerning given the humanitarian crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made people, especially the poor and marginalised, even more dependent on government provision of essential goods and services like healthcare, food and social security. Without access to relevant information citizens are unable to get their rights and entitlements and corruption thrives," the report warned.

The report by Transparency International India showed that the Centre and state governments together have received 4.2 crore RTI applications since 2005 when the RTI Act was implemented.

While the Central ministries and departments got 1.19 crore applications, Maharashtra tops the list with 86.06 lakh applications among the states.

"After 15-17 years, the mindset and culture amongst a majority of the government functionaries and public authorities is still set in the era of secretive functioning of the government. Even after 16-17 years, RTIs are perceived as a burden on the government across all political regimes," a statement by the TII said.

"The RTI Act lost its strength and vigour due to lack of political will, poor infrastructural and staff requirements of Central and State Information Commissions are ignored; information requests made by active citizens on important matters of public importance are outrightly rejected and through covert means attacks and threats are used against RTI activists and applicants to suppress their voices," it added.