New Delhi: With pending cases piling up due to the high number of vacancies for the post of information commissioners in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and various State Information Commissions (SICs), the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre and eight state governments to submit a status report on its earlier direction for filling them up.A bench led by Justice S.A. Bobde, who is now also the chief justice-designate, and comprising Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari, issued the direction on a plea filed by three Right to Information activists – Anjali Bharadwaj, Amrita Johri and Commodore (Retd) Lokesh K. Batra.The activists had earlier filed an application seeking direction for the timely and transparent appointment of the chief information commissioner and other information commissioners of both the CIC and SICs to secure the fundamental right to information and to ensure effective implementation of the RTI Act, 2015.SC had directed Centre, states to fill vacanciesThey recalled that on February 15, 2019, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices A.K. Sikri and Abdul Nazeer had in its order on a petition filed by them on April 25, 2018, directed the Centre and states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala and Karnataka to fill up the vacant posts of the chief and state information commissioners within six months.Appearing for the petitioners, their counsel Prashant Bhushan stated that despite the directions of the apex court, neither the Centre nor the state governments have filled the posts.Subsequently, the bench directed the concerned governments to “immediately” fill the vacancies in a “transparent and time-bound manner”.Pending cases increasingThe petition also drew the Supreme Court’s attention to the fact that pending cases have been rising due to the reluctance of the governments to fill the vacancies.When the original public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by the three RTI activists in April 2018, there were 23,500 cases pending before the CIC. On the eve of the Supreme Court judgment in February 2019, it had increased to 28,848. And earlier this week, on November 4, it stood at 33,408.Also Read: The Right to Information Is Dead. Here Is its Obituary.The petition had also recalled that the apex court had in February passed a number of directions with respect to filling the vacancies in the CIC and SICs. It had stated that the process of appointments must start one to two months before a post falls vacant.Also, it noted that the post of chief information commissioner is on a higher pedestal and therefore the appointment process for a chief should be on the “same terms” as that of the chief election commissioner.‘People from all walks of life should be considered’The Supreme Court had also taken cognisance of the provisions in the RTI Act and directed that besides bureaucrats, people from other walks of life should also be considered for the post of information commissioners in the CIC.Another important direction of the apex court pertained to the adoption of a transparent process in the appointment of information commissioners. It had directed that the details of the applicants and the proceedings of the search committees should be uploaded on the commission websites.SC issued similar directions in July 2018 tooThe Supreme Court had in July 2018 too expressed concern over vacancies at the CIC and SICs and directed the Centre and seven states – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha and Karnataka – to file an affidavit providing a time schedule for filling the posts.The fact that it had to issue similar directions overs a year later speaks volumes about the manner in which the Centre and the states responded.