The Maharashtra State Information Commission (MSIC) has the most second appeals and complaints pending in India, as per the report released on the eve of RTI anniversary.
As per "Report Card on the Performance of Information Commissions in India, 2021-22” by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan, a Delhi based organisation working towards RTI, Maharashtra appeals and complaints are over 30 percent of all the appeals and complaints and twice over the commission that ranks second on the list of high pendencies.
The Central Information Commission to which Maharashtra is often compared, ranks fourth in the list with 26,724 appeals and complaints pending as compared to Maharashtra's 99,722. The data provided is till June 2022 with the exception of Bihar and Uttarakhand that provided figures till August and October.
TheFree Press Journal in its October 11, 2022 edition had provided an updated figure of pending appeals in the MSIC that were over 1.04 lakhs as of August 2022. Out of the 29 commissions, the appeals and complaints are from 26 as those of Jharkhand and Tripura are defunct with no commissioners for months, and Tamil Nadu has not provided any information.
Mizoram was the only commission with no appeals and complaints pending till that period. Despite having the most appeals and complaints registered in the period of July 1, 2022 to June 2022, the clearing rate in Maharashtra was less than half.
As per data, 48,174 of those were registered but only 19,179 were disposed of, which was less than 40 percent. Uttar Pradesh which got the second highest number of appeals and complaints at 34,567 disposed of more in that period at 39,352.
Besides Uttar Pradesh, 11 state commissions disposed of more appeals and complaints than were registered in the period. Data on levying of penalty, which is often considered as a measure of strictness directly impacting implementation of the RTI, was not provided in case of MSIC.
Karnataka topped the list with most penalties at 1.03 crores in 1,265 cases. Across India, Rs 3.12 crore penalty was imposed in 5,805 cases. "The MSIC is clearing outstanding withlarge pendencies.For a very long time there have not been timely appointments despite SC judgement which directed Maharashtra to work in full capacity.
However, disposal per commissioner is not bad in Maharashtra. As per our findings,they had the most clearing per commissioner and even this year. Due to lessnumber of commissioners the waiting time has increasedtoover fiveyears,which is not good for a state like Maharashtra, which is next only to West Bengal thathas 24 years of waiting atthe rate at which they are disposing of cases," said Ms Anjali Bhardwaj, founder of Satark Nagrik Sangathan.
