By March, CIC aims to clear all pending cases filed till 2016

New Delhi: The Central Information Commission is looking to clear by March next year all the pending cases filed till 2016, Chief Information Commissioner RK Mathur on Friday said.

The Commission has 26,719 RTI Act related cases pending.

Besides the Chief Information Commissioner, there are eight Information Commissioners -- two short of the full capacity-- who adjudicate on issue related to the RTI Act ranging from timely disposal of cases to complaints of incorrect interpretation of the law by processing officers.

Addressing a seminar on the implementation of the RTI Act in the country, Mathur said the Commission has taken several steps to reduce the pendency of cases.

"The Commission will dispose all the cases filed till 2016 by March next year," he said.

Speaking at the seminar, Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative highlighted conflicting decisions by various high courts on the matters related to the RTI Act which, he said, make the implementation of the Act difficult.

Another noted RTI activist, Subhash Agrawal, pointed out that several non-governmental organisations oppose any step taken to stop the "misuse" of the Act.

"Because, according to them, percentage of such misuse is totally insignificant. It is not known how they have made the study," he said.