As RTI Act completes 20 years, report shows lapses

As the RTI Act marks 20 years, a report reveals several commissions are defunct or lacking leadership, causing significant delays in information access.

As the Right To Information (RTI) Act completes 20 years on October 12, 2025, a report on the performance of information commissions shows that two, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh , are defunct and three , Central Information Commission and that of Andhra and Chhattisgarh , are without the chief commissioner.

Declaring a political party a public authority under the RTI Act would hamper its smooth internal working, which is not the objective of the Act and was not envisaged by Parliament, reads a government affidavit. (Illustration: Jayanto)

The Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), a non-governmental organisation, said in a statement that it has compiled a report on the performance of information commissions across the country based on information accessed under the RTI Act.

While Himachal is ruled by the Congress , which enacted the RTI Act in 2005, the party is in alliance in Jharkhand, where Hemant Soren is the chief minister in a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha led government. Telangana, Goa, Tripura and Madhya Pradesh appointed information commissioners during the study period of July 1, 2024 and October 2, 2025, thus making the information commissions functional, the report said.

The report added that for the seventh time in 11 years , the Central Information Commission (CIC), which hears all RTI appeals against the Central government and its public sector undertakings, is without a head. Of the 10 information commissioners, eight positions are lying vacant in CIC and a case is being heard in the Supreme Court to fill these vacancies.

Under the sunshine RTI Act, the information commissions comprise a chief information commissioner and up to 10 information commissioners.

The report said that several information commissions were found to be functioning at reduced capacity. The Chhattisgarh state information commission (SIC) is functioning with a single commissioner and the SICs of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar have only two commissioners.

Not filling the posts has resulted in pendency of appeals and complaints, defeating the purpose of the law to provide quick information to the applications. According to the report, 2,41,751 appeals and complaints were registered between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 with the 27 information commissions, which already had 4,13,972 pending appeals. During this period, these commissions disposed 1,82,165 cases.

Going by the time taken to dispose of the appeals, the report said that Telangana SIC will take an estimated 29 years and 2 months to dispose of an appeal filed on July 1,2025. Tripura SIC will take an estimated 23 years, Chhattisgarh SIC, 11 years and Madhya Pradesh SIC ,seven years.

Even though section 25 of the RTI Act obligates each commission to table a report on implementation of the law in the state legislature, the report found that 69% of the information commissions are yet to publish their annual report for 2023-24.

Anjali Bhardwaj, RTI activist, who has filed the petition in the Supreme Court on vacant posts in information commissions, said two decades after the RTI Act was implemented, the experience in India suggests that the functioning of information commissions is a major bottleneck in the effective implementation of the law.

“Large backlogs of appeals and complaints in many commissions across the country have resulted in inordinate delays in disposal of cases, which render the law ineffective. One of the primary reasons for the backlogs is the failure of central and state governments to take timely action to appoint information commissions to the Central Information Commission and state information commissions, respectively.”