Adjudicators of the RTI Regime: A Critical Analysis of the Performance of State Information Commission, Haryana

Abstract

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has ushered in a new era of transparent governance. It makes citizens more resourceful and powerful to expose to the public the maladministration in public authorities. But this task is challenging due to prevailing culture of secrecy and lackadaisical attitude of Central Public Information Officers/State Public Information Officers (CPIOs/SPIOs), who act as hubs to implement information regime. To regulate their duties, arrangement has been made to constitute Central Information Commission (CIC) and State Information Commissions (SICs). Their vigilant observation and fair outlook play a vital role in establishing corruption-free governance. This article examines the adjudicatory role of Haryana State Information Commission by selecting the data from 2005 to 2018 with regard to disposal of enquiries, complaints and appeals. After presenting the powers and functions of the State Commission, year-wise data are presented in tabular form to have a look at the performance of the commission in dealing with the RTI applications. Besides, a brief summary is also given presenting the number of delinquent SPIOs, who have not deposited the penalties imposed by the commission. It is a serious challenge before the commission. On this critical aspect, facts and arguments are discussed to assess the role of the full commission and individual commissioners in disposal of RTI matters. Due to lacklustre performance of the commission to ensure voluntary disclosure compliance and speedy disposals, the author feels concerned and opines that if these disquieting trends are not nipped in bud, then the commission may come to be perceived as a mere scarecrow.