NEW DELHI: In an ironic twist, the government has refused to share information on hiring of information commissioners for the Central Information Commission ( CIC ). The commission has been short of four information commissioners for some months now. The advertisement for hiring new information commissioners was taken out in 2016.

The department of personnel and training (DoPT), in answer to an RTI plea, said the information was exempt under RTI rules. “The file relating to appointment of information commissioner in CIC and dealt after 01-01-2017 is exempted from disclosure at this stage,” said the reply by DoPT to an RTI plea filed by Aseem Takyar. It claimed exemption under Section 8(1)(i) of the RTI Act.

Section 8(1)(i) exempts disclosure of personal information, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of an individual.

Attempts to seek information on the ongoing search for information commissioners has mostly come up against a wall of silence, say information activists. Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra had last year sought details from the Prime Minister’s Office on the matter, and was denied information. In January, chief information commissioner R K Mathur, had asked the PMO to give the required information to Batra.

The advertisement for two positions of information commissioners had come out in September 2016, after getting approval from the PMO in August that year. Later, an RTI plea showed that 225 candidates had applied for the vacancies. Since then, however, there has been little movement on the file.

“Eighteen months ago, the government had advertised for the post. 225 applications were received but no appointments till date. Since then, two more information commissioners have retired. This is badly going to affect transparency law,” Batra said.

At present, the CIC is operating with seven information commissioners, including the chief information commissioner, against a sanctioned strength of 11. Of the seven, three are set to retire this year.

Takyar, who filed the RTI plea in January, had asked for details of the appointment.

