30% of the posts of Information Commissioners in the States, across the country are lying vacant, shows a study conducted by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives (CHRI).

The study shows that only 83 Information Commissioners, including Chief Information Commissioners, have been appointed against 117 posts in 29 Information Commissions, including Jammu and Kashmir.

Jharkhand has six, the maximum number of vacancies in any information commission followed by Tamil Nadu with four. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have three vacancies each.

The posts of State Chief Information Commissioners in three states - Maharashtra, Manipur and Tripura have not been filled up yet.

The study has been conducted by CHRI on the seventh anniversary (May 12 2012) of the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).

It also shows that while the posts of Information Commissioners have doubled, the proportion of retired civil servants appointed to these jobs increased inordinately. In 2006-07, 52% Information Commissioners were retired civil servants. In 2012 66% of the 83 Information Commissioners, including Chief Information Commissioners, at the Central and State level are retired civil servants. It indicates government’s reluctance to trust the eminence and expertise of non civil servants citizens. In Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal the State Information Commissions are filled only with retired IAS officers. And J&K State Information Commission is the only multi-member body without any retired IAS officer on it.

Also, it shows that less than 15% of the Information Commissioners i.e eight out of 54 across the country are women. Haryana State Information Commission has an interesting composition. 50% of its membership is made up of a husband and wife team.

Three Information Commissioners served as members of political parties prior to their appointment (in Kerala, Nagaland and Punjab). The information, that whether they resigned from the political parties prior to entering the office of Information Commissioner was not available.

The report also highlights the availability of dedicated websites with state information commissions. Mizoram is the state where the commission does not have a dedicated website. It just has some pages on the Mizoram Government Portal. Whereas the commissions in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have dedicated websites exclusively in the local language, Hindi and Marathi. Several websites are bilingual to some extent. However the website of the Central Information Commission is available in English only.

The report also shows that only the Central Information Commission and two State Information Commissions in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have uploaded separate annual reports for all years i.e from 2006-2011 on their websites. Eight State Information Commissions - Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh have not uploaded any of their annual reports on their websites.

Only 13 of 29 commissions have uploaded some or all decisions on appeals and complaints for all seven years of their existence. The Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir belong to this list.

Two State Information Commissions in Assam and Mizoram have not uploaded any decision on their websites.

Unlike the decisions database on most websites of State Information Commissions, which are accessible to any person, the websites of Karnataka and Uttarakhand State Information Commissions are accessible only to parties to a case.

The report also gives recommendations to improve the situation. It says the government must collaborate with advocators of transparency to assess the pendency of cases in Information Commissions and determine the size of the body required to dispose them. It also says that all Information Commissions must ensure that their websites have some basic content in the official language to enable easy access.