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Info Commission revival by February end: Jharkhand govt tells high court
The state government’s response came pursuant to a directive issued by a division bench of justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai, who had summoned chief secretary Avinash Kumar and secretary, personnel & administrative reforms, Pravin Toppo to appear in person last week during the hearing of a special leave application filed by Birendra Singh on April 22, 2025. A host of petitions have been filed in the Jharkhand high court regarding the State Information Commission, which has been lying defunct over the past five years.
The Jharkhand government has assured the high court that the process of appointing the chairman and members of the State Information Commission (SIC) is at the final stage and that the body is expected to be made functional by the end of February.
The state government’s response came pursuant to a directive issued by a division bench of justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai, who had summoned chief secretary Avinash Kumar and secretary, personnel & administrative reforms, Pravin Toppo to appear in person last week during the hearing of a special leave application filed by Birendra Singh on April 22, 2025. A host of petitions have been filed in the Jharkhand high court regarding the State Information Commission, which has been lying defunct over the past five years.
As per the interim order uploaded on Friday, the two top officials appeared before the bench on January 29 and submitted an affidavit assuring the bench that the commission would become functional within four weeks.
“An affidavit has been filed by the chief secretary, government of Jharkhand, wherein a specific statement has been made at paragraph 2 that the process of appointment of the chairman and members of the State Information Commission is at the final stage and that the State Information Commission is expected to be made functional within a period of four weeks,” the interim order of the division bench said.
“This Court has posed a query to the learned Advocate General as to why the word ‘expected’ has been referred to in paragraph 2 of the affidavit. The learned Advocate General has submitted that the State will take all sincere endeavours to make the Commission functional within a period of four weeks,” the order said further, posting the matter for hearing after four weeks on February 27.
The chairman post of the State Information Commission and the six Information Commissioners in the state have been lying vacant since May 8, 2020, when the term of the last information commissioner, Himashu Chaudhary, ended. Around 25,000 petitions are pending for hearing in the commission, officials said.
It is noteworthy that the high court is separately hearing a bunch of other petitions on the issue of vacancies in the State Information Commission and other statutory bodies, including the Lokayukta and the State Human Rights Commission. The bunch of those petitions is listed for the next hearing on February 9 before the bench of Justice Rajesh Shankar.
Earlier, the issue of vacancies in the information commissions at the Centre and several states, including Jharkhand, had also come up for hearing in the Supreme Court last year in the matter of Anjali Bharadwaj & Ors. vs. Union of India & Ors.
In its interim order, on October 27, 2025, the apex court directed the Jharkhand government that the pending selection process be completed in all respects within 45 days and a compliance affidavit be filed before it. However, the state is yet to complete the process.
