New Delhi: The Vice President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the Central Information Commission (CIC)’s 12th Annual Convention on ‘Right to Information’, here today. This year the Convention follows two seminars held in May and July this year, to discuss ‘Implementation of the Right to Information Act 2005’ and ‘Land Records and RTI Act’ respectively.
The Central Information Commission has invited well researched original presentations, including case studies from academicians, practitioners, researchers, NGOs/civil society groups, students and other stakeholders to cover three subjects namely ‘Suo-motu disclosures’, ‘Record keeping’ and ‘Emerging issues in implementation of RTI Act’ for the Convention.
During the 11th Annual Convention of CIC, held in November last year, a new software for registration and disposal of appeals and complaints was launched by the Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh. The software enables registration of appeals and complaints online as well as offline. Second Appeals/Complaints are generally registered as a case within 48 hours of receipt, if found to be complete.
The new software also provides for a public authority module. This interface makes the appeals/complaints registered in the Commission visible to the public authority immediately after registration, enabling them to take corrective action without waiting for hearing notices from the Commission. Currently, about 1,000 out of approximately 2,000 Public Authorities have registered for this module.
The Commission has digitized all its records of old and current cases (1.70 lakh files) over the past year. The fresh cases registered in the Commission are also in a digitized format. The digitized records assist in more efficient scheduling and hearing of cases and their disposal.
A facilitation desk, functioning in the Commission since 1st July 2016, facilitates applicants in filing appeals/complaints before the Commission as well as handles their queries relating to cases registered before the Commission. The Commission also offers applicants the facility of hearing through Video Conferencing enabling applicants and Public Authorities from across the country to attend case hearings at the NIC studio in a nearby district headquarters, instead of coming to Delhi. In the year 2016-17, the CIC conducted 15,228 video conferences. The Commission has conducted 8,124 video conferences upto November 14, 2017.
The Commission has registered 16,753 cases till November 14, 2017 and has disposed 19,899 cases for the same period. During the year 2016-17, the CIC had registered 23, 811 cases and disposed 32,344 cases, as compared to registration of 25,960 cases and disposal of 28,188 cases in the year 2015-16. The Commission had 27,137 cases pending as on April 01, 2017 as against 34,982 pending cases as on April 01, 2016. As on November 14, 2017, the CIC has 24,211 cases pending before it.
