Telangana HC seeks details on govt steps to appoint information officers

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to furnish details on steps it has taken to appoint a chief information commissioner and information commissioners to the TS Information Commission, as directed under the RTI Act of 2005.

The division bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Tukaramji, was dealing with a PIL filed by M. Padmanabha Reddy of the Forum for Good Governance, an NGO.

The term of the chief information commissioner ended on April 21, 2022, and one of the information commissioner’s terms, the latest, ended on February 23 this year, since when the posts are vacant and the pendency of cases increasing.

In the last hearing, the court directed the Chief Secretary to submit the stand of the government. Following the orders, the Chief Secretary filed an affidavit, but the bench was not satisfied with it.

The affidavit furnished by the Chief Secretary stated that the file pertaining to the appointments of a CIC and ICs are under active consideration of the highest competent authority.

After going through the affidavit, Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed that “the affidavit is vague.”

The court also expressed its surprise that the affidavit failed to mention when the proposal was submitted, to whom and its current status. The court also expressed discontent over the lack of hearings in the Information Commission on the grievances before it under RTI Act.

The government counsel informed the court that the staff of the Information Commission was attending to the grievances of litigants regularly. However, the Chief Justice sought to know from the government counsel as to who would pass orders on appeals filed by a litigant, in the absence of a CIC and ICs.

The court adjourned the case to July 5.