3 information commissioners appointed amid case in HC over vacant posts

Despite the state government’s assurance to the Bombay High Court to fill all the vacancies in the SIC and to appoint a full-time state chief information commissioner in the first week of February, the state has failed to make the appointment.

Maharashtra has no full-time state chief information commissioner from April 13, 2023. Sunil Porwal was handling the additional charge till December 15, 2023. After his retirement, Samir Sahai, who is the state information commissioner of Pune division, has been handling the additional charge of the top post.

In addition, out of seven state information commissioners — one with each of the revenue divisions of the state — four posts are vacant and are being distributed as an additional responsibility to three existing state information commissioners.

At present, the state has only three information commissioners. Sahai, apart from handling additional charge as state chief information commissioner, also has an additional charge of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Mumbai divisions. Rahul Pande is a state information commissioner of Nagpur division and is additionally in charge of Amravati division. Bhupendra Gurav is a state information commissioner of Nashik division and has an additional charge of the Konkan division.

On December 13, the Maharashtra government, during the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) at the Bombay High Court, had informed the court to fill the vacant posts by February first week.

“Learned Additional Government Pleader, on the basis of instructions, states that all the vacancies in the State Information Commission, including the office of the Chief Information Commissioner, shall be filled in by the first week of February 2024. We thus hope and trust that the vacancies in the Commission shall be filled in accordingly by the first week of February 2024,” the court order stated.

The PIL was filed by former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi and other activists working in the field.

“Despite the court order, the government has not made appointments of chief info commissioner and one more post as information commissioner is still pending. We will be initiating the contempt proceedings,” said Vijay Kumbhar, one of the petitioners from Pune.