The Supreme Court has declared India’s Right to Information Act effectively useless due to prolonged vacancies in information commissions. This judicial acknowledgment highlights a systemic failure where governments neglect appointing commissioners, leaving key regulatory bodies defunct and unable to enforce transparency. Persistent non-compliance despite previous court directives undermines democratic accountability. While officials publicly champion transparency, they fail to act, preventing commissions from exposing corruption or improving service delivery. This gap between rhetoric and action erodes public trust and stifles the mechanism’s ability to hold the state accountable. This situation is critical for open data because functional commissions are essential for enforcing information access rights. Without them, citizens cannot compel the release of government data, rendering open data initiatives theoretical rather than practical. Strengthening these bodies is vital to ensuring that transparency laws translate into tangible, accessible public information.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.comPublished on 2023-11-02