E-Paper
HC seeks report on non-appointments of information commissioners
The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Punjab government to file a status report over the non-appointment of state information commissioners.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Punjab government to file a status report over the non-appointment of state information commissioners.
The order was passed in a plea which alleged that for the last three years the appointments of commissioners have not been done in Punjab state information commission.
The public interest litigation by Nikhil Thamman sought immediate appointments and claimed that it is a gross violation of the citizens’ fundamental rights as pendency of the appeals and the complaints are increasing daily. As per plea the last information commissioner was appointed in July 2021.
The commission worked in its full strength till September 2021 and subsequently all the 10 seats got vacant as all of them retired. But fresh appointments were not made, the plea states that the last working information commissioner, Asit Jolly retired on July 9, 2024, leaving behind only the chief information commissioner Inderpal Singh for adjudication of pending appeals and complaints.
The backlog of cases is increasing day by day and in the first 5 months of this year, it has increased by 50% leaving behind more than 8,900 cases to be adjudicated, the plea claims.
