By RTI Activist Srikant Pakal
CUTTACK:High Court slams Information Commission for its inefficiency:-
The court strongly condemned the state’s Information Commissioners for their reckless and reckless behavior (WP (C) No. 12399 of 2024 disposed on 09.10.2025)
We have spoken many times about the incompetence, ignorance, inexperience and incompetence of the Information Commissioners and have also written with written evidence. Today, the High Court has called the hearing and decision of the Information Commission as non-application of mind. If the Information Commissioners do this, the desired objectives of the Information Act cannot be achieved.
Background of the incident:
In 2017, the villagers of Kuansh village in Bhadrak district submitted a petition to the Chief Secretary requesting that the illegal settlers be removed from their village and the land be brought under the government’s control. The Chief Secretary forwarded the petition to the Secretary, R&DM Dept, Board of Revenue, Cuttack, RDC, Cuttack, Collector, Bhadrak and asked them to take action.
The Bhadrak District Magistrate forwarded it to the Tehsildar. Subsequently, a villager named Hemant Nayak sought information from the Bhadrak Tehsildar’s office in 2018. Since the PIO did not provide any information, he filed a first appeal and then a second appeal to the Information Commission.
The Office of the Information Commission registered the said appeal as SA No. 291/2019.
Five years later, the Information Commission held a hearing on 26.2.24. During the hearing, the PIO and the first appellate authority stated that there was no information. Since there was no information, the appeal was closed stating that the information could not be provided.
The appellant approached the High Court against such a deadly order of the Commission.
The High Court strongly criticized the Information Commission’s frivolous attitude towards hearing the case, calling it a non-application of mind and again directed the court to hear the case. Along with this, a penalty of Rs 50,000 was imposed on the Tehsildar.
We also see that the people appointed to the Information Commission are not qualified. They have been appointed by arresting them. As a result, they do not understand the law or are unable to conduct a hearing.
They cannot call for a hearing or an order. The most incompetent Chief Information Commissioner is the one who is unable to conduct many hearings since he cannot write orders. And all the hearings he is conducting are wrong, in one or two hearings at the most, he is closing the hearing without providing information.
It takes two to three months to write and send an order for each and every hearing. And the order is one page. If this continues, how will people get justice after waiting for 3 to 4 years? As a result, the prestige of the Commission, the credibility of the people and the hope of getting justice in personal battles are being destroyed. So, the reader should consider this: in whose interest will the expenditure of half a crore per month for running the Commission office be?Discussions are going on everywhere. Where did the Honorable Chief Minister get these people?
