As against former bureaucrats holding posts of state chief information commissioners (SCIC) in Maharashtra, the newly-appointed Rahul Pande, who was a mainstream journalist for over two decades, was appointed in this coveted position last fortnight.
Prior to his current role, Mr Pande served as the information commissioner in Nagpur from October 2021 to October 2024. During this tenure, he also held additional responsibilities for the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Amravati divisions. As the SCIC, he will now serve a term of three years.
Speaking to the 'RTI Katta Online' forum last Sunday on his immediate priorities, SCIC Pande called for urgent and comprehensive digitisation of government records to enhance transparency and accountability under the Right to Information Act (RTI), 2005.
Mr Pande stressed the need for a more pro-people implementation of the RTI Act, particularly in dealing with exemption clauses like Section 8(j) (third-party information) and Section 11(1) (third-party consultations). “My approach has always been to use these sections sparingly, as overuse dilutes the spirit of transparency,” he said.
SCIC Pande welcomed the Supreme Court’s August 2023 judgment in Kisan Jain vs Union of India, which stressed maximum suo motu disclosures under Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act. As SCIC, he has already issued directives under Section 25 requiring public authorities to upload all furnished information on their official websites in searchable formats.
The state information commission’s own website, however, remains poorly maintained, he says. “It can be made functional and user-friendly within 15 minutes, but government apathy persists,” he lamented. He is taking up this issue with the government, he said, while praising the cic.gov.in website.
However, he observed that the growing problem of a handful of individuals filing thousands of RTIs is clogging the system and this deserves urgent attention. He elaborated, “RTI is a democratic right, but it should not become the selective privilege of a few. Excessive and repetitive filings by individuals at certain benches skew the pendency data.’’
Another major challenge, SCIC Pande pointed out, is the manpower crunch and issues with deputation. “Officers sent to the information commission from other departments face reduced allowances and reduced salaries, and their parent departments don’t get replacements. This leads to reluctance in deputation.”
Moreover, the role of public information officers (PIOs) is often assigned without any standard protocol, sometimes even to junior clerks. “Nobody wants to be a PIO these days. If there’s any mistake in information disclosure, senior officials hold junior PIOs responsible, leading to disciplinary actions,” he said.
Contrary to popular belief that RTI is largely an urban tool, Mr Pande observed a high usage in rural areas, especially in Gram Panchayats. “RTI is actively used in villages to question government schemes and fund utilisation. However, Gram Sevaks are neither trained nor equipped to handle RTI requests. This is a serious administrative issue that the rural development department must address.”
With information commissioners appointed across all zones in Maharashtra, SCIC Pande is optimistic about the future. A key agenda item in his upcoming commission meeting is to sort out the staffing and deputation issues. He hopes impactful decisions will emerge from these discussions. “My mission,” he reaffirmed, “is to make RTI a truly pro-people tool, ensuring that transparency and accountability are embedded in every layer of governance — not just on paper, but in practice.”
Reflecting on his career as information commissioner, prior to becoming SCIC, Mr Pande noted, “In three years, I worked across North Vidarbha, South Vidarbha, and Marathwada, addressing hundreds of appeals related to pressing social issues. What I realised is that while bureaucracy often has a status quo mindset, the RTI Act breaks through this rigidity. It's revolutionary.”
Mr Pande proudly shared that he had personally disposed 1,000 second appeals as soon as he took office of the SCIC and that over the past few months, the pendency of appeals has reduced from 130,000 to 88,000.
Quantifying the enormous power of the sunshine law, SCIC Pande believes that “The RTI Act is a citizen-centric legislation. It empowers every individual to question the government with the same authority as an elected representative. It is no longer a system where only our MPs and MLAs oversee governance — citizens are now at the centre of accountability.”
Quoting Dr B R Ambedkar, Mr Pande reiterated that democracy's strength lies in the Constitution. “Ambedkar emphasised that Article 32, which offers protection of fundamental rights, is the soul of the Constitution. Similarly, the RTI Act offers citizens a peaceful and legal route to demand accountability.”
SCIC Pande, in his role as a journalist, used RTI effectively for his stories to bring high-profile cases to light.
(
Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife. She is also the convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book "To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte" with Vinita Kamte and is the author of "The Mighty Fall".)
