Two of India’s 29 information commissions are defunct, three are functioning without a chief, and 18 have a waiting list of more than a year.

And going by their backlog and monthly rate of case disposals, two of the commissions would take 29 and 23 years, respectively, to dispose of any new application.

A transparency watchdog’s annual report card paints a grim picture of the performance of the 28 state information commissions (SICs) and the central information commission (CIC), created under the RTI Act that completed 20 years on Sunday.

“Six information commissions were found to be non-functional for varying lengths of time during the period July 1, 2024, to October 7, 2025, with all posts of commissioners being vacant,” says the report, published by the Satark Nagrik Sangathan.

“As of October 7, 2025, two commissions were completely defunct.”

The Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh commissions have been defunct since May 2020 and July 2025, respectively.

“For more than 5 years, people seeking information from public authorities under the jurisdiction of the Jharkhand SIC have had no recourse to the independent appellate mechanism prescribed under the RTI Act if their right to information is violated,” the report says.

It underlines that despite the Supreme Court setting a nine-week deadline to select the information commissioners, the Jharkhand commission remains defunct.

The central information commission has been headless since September this year.

“The CIC has been working with only 2 commissioners since September 13, 2025.The post of chief and 8 commissioners are vacant,” the report says.

“The 8 posts of information commissioners have been vacant since November 2023. The backlog of pending cases has been rising and it takes more than 1 year for a matter tobe heard.”

Only the SICs in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have been functioning to capacity.

The report says: “2,41,751 appeals and complaints were registered between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, by 27 information commissions for which relevant information was available. During the same time period, 1,82,165 cases were disposed (sic) by these 27 commissions….

“The SIC of Jharkhand was defunct throughout the period under consideration, and therefore no appeals/ complaints were disposed by the SIC. The Jharkhand SIC has also stopped registering new appeals/ complaints.

“The SIC of Rajasthan denied information on the number of appeals and complaints registered and disposed bythe commission. The commission claimed that disclosing these figures would cause a breach of privilege of the legislative assembly as the annual report has not yet been tabled in the Assembly!”

Bengal’s commission, which showed a remarkable improvement in last year’s report, has not provided information to Satark for thisyear’s report.

“RTI applications to the West Bengal SIC were filed through the official RTI online portal of the West Bengal government,” the latest report says.

“However, subsequently the weblink to the portal became non-functional and the SIC claimed it did not receive the RTI applications and therefore, the applications were re-filed.”

Backlog and speed

The number of appeals pending on June 30 this year with all the commissions cumulatively was 4,13,972.

“Using data on the backlog of cases… and their monthly rate of disposal for the period under review (July 1, 2024 till June 30, 2025), the estimated time it would take to dispose an appeal/ complaint filed with an IC (information commission) on July 1, 2025 was computed (assuming appeals and complaints are disposed in a chronological order),” the report says.

“Telangana SIC would take an estimated 29 years and 2 months — a matter filed on July 1, 2025, would be disposed in the year 2054....

“SIC of Tripura would take an estimated 23 years and Chhattisgarh would take 11 years. SICs of Madhya Pradesh and Punjab would take 7 years. The assessment shows that 18 commissions would take 1 year or more to dispose an appeal/ complaint filed on July 1, 2025.

“The estimated time required for disposal of an appeal/ complaint in the CIC was found to be 1 year and 3 months.”

In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said: “In the last 11 years, the Modi Govt. has systematically corroded the RTI Act, thereby hollowing out Democracy and citizen’s right….

“In 2019, the Modi Govt hacked away at the RTI Act, seizing control over Information Commissioners’ tenure and pay, converting independent watchdogs into servile functionaries….

“The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 gutted the RTI’s public interest clause, weaponising privacy to shield corruption and stonewall scrutiny.”

He added: “A chilling ‘no data available’ doctrine now prevails.… Since 2014, over 100 RTI activists have been murdered, unleashing a climate of terror that punishes truth-seekers and extinguishes dissent.”