- Lok Sabha on July 22, 2019 passed the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019. In this amendment, it is proposed to amend the Right to Information Act, 2005 so as to provide that the term of office of, and the salaries, allowances and other terms and conditions of service of, the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners and the State Chief Information Commissioner and the State Information Commissioners, shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government.
- The changes made through the amendment will apply to information commissioners at the Centre and also the states. The bill still has to be cleared by the Rajya Sabha before it becomes a law.
- The amendment bill stipulates that the terms of office of the Central and State Information Commissioners will be determined by the Central government as against the existing provision which guarantees a fixed term of five years or up to an age of 65 years.
- As per the proposal, their salaries, allowances, and other terms and conditions of service will be determined by the Central government which is contrary to the currently prescribed salaries and allowances, which are equivalent to that of the Chief Election Commissioner/Election Commissioners for the CIC/SIC; and the Chief Secretary to the State government for the other ICs.
- According to the Minister of State for the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh, it was a gross anomaly to designate the CIC and ICs as equivalent to the CEC and the ECs respectively. It potentially equated CICs to Judges of the Supreme Court even though the order passed by CIC is liable to be challenged in a High Court
- Participating in the debate on the Bill, Union Minister of Statefor Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the Government is fully committed to transparency and accountability. Following this principle, the Government has encouraged suo motu dissemination of maximum information by Government Departments in order to reduce number of RTIs.
- In addition to this, the Minister said that the Government is focussing on grievance redressal through citizen involvement. This has strengthened the underlying principle of RTI and has consistently reduced the pendency of RTI applications in the last 5 years, the Minister informed the House.
- Replying on the issue of comparison of service conditions of Information Commissions and Election Commissions, Shri Singh said that the Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions are statutory bodies established under the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. Therefore, the mandate of Election Commission of India and Central and State Information Commissions are different.
- Hence, their status and service conditions need to be rationalised accordingly.Further, the Minister said that there has been no change in the section of the original act dealing with the appointment of Information Commissioners. Thus, the question of decreasing autonomy of the Information Commissions doesnot arise, the Minister added.
