Srinagar: As many as 474 Right to Information (RTI) Act cases pending before the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission have been transferred to the Central Information Commission (CIC), the final appellate authority for the RTI Act.
Nearly seven months after Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation in October 2019, the Union Territory (UT) has transferred the cases to CIC, which hears RTI complaints and appeals of central ministries, departments and all UTs, the Economic Times reported.
These 474 RTI applications had been pending before the Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission.
With the formation of the two UTs– Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh — the central RTI Act became applicable in J&K.
The administration had to transfer these applications. However, despite repeated reminders by CIC, these cases were still lying with the UT administration. While waiting for this formal transfer, CIC asked all RTI applicants to start filing second appeals directly.
A senior CIC official told ET, “While we were registering fresh cases, these older cases were still pending for want of transfer from UT. Now, the administration has transferred these cases last week. We have now prioritised these much-delayed hearings in cases that are over two years old.”
