Maharashtra RTI officers spend 2 hrs a day in hearings

Only 10,000 Cases Disposed Of In Past 2 Yrs

Activists have zeroed down on the reason for pendency of RTI appeals in Maharashtra. Information commissioners are spending barely two hours a day on the job they have been tasked with. In an age where ‘time is money’ is a scared mantra, Maharashtra state information commissioners have been found spending barely 120 minutes a day in hearings.

To put this in perspective, High Court judges hold continuous hearings for at least five hours a day.

A study conducted by RTI activist and now information commissioner with the Central Information Commission — Shailesh Gandhi — revealed that 96 hearings were conducted by the SIC over a period of 10 days. With 16,500 cases pending, the situation appears more dismal if one realises that the commission has disposed of only 10,000 cases in the past two-and-ahalf years.

According to the study, the total time for the 96 hearings that were held was 767 minutes, which means that the average time spent on a hearing by the commissioners was about 8 minutes. Usually, there were about 8-15 hearings a day, making it an average of 64-120 minutes devoted for the hearings daily.

Gandhi and his colleagues also found that of the 96 hearings, 18 were adjourned. In many instances, the case was not disposed of though the information was readily available and in many cases, the RTI issue was sidelined.

Incidentally, the CIC also has a major issue with high pendency. There are 8,541 pending cases with the CIC at present. The commission had been demanding an increase in the number of information commissioners — a demand that has been acceded to — but activists have complained that the commissioners should be spending more time in disposing of cases. CIC deals mainly with appeals and complaints and activists argue that it should be much easier to adjudicate orders.

With Thanks from the Times of India
Source :- The Times of India 29 September 2008 P 13 Delhi
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