High Court adjourns PIL on delay in RTI appeals and applications in Bihar after noting the issue is pending before the Supreme Court in Anjali Bhardwaj v. Union of India.
The Patna High Court on April 16, 2026 adjourned a public interest litigation raising the issue of pendency of RTI applications and appeals in Bihar after being informed that a similar issue is already under consideration before the Supreme Court in Anjali Bhardwaj v. Union of India. The matter was heard by Chief Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo and Justice Harish Kumar in Praween Kumar v. The State of Bihar, Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No. 3089 of 2026.
The PIL was filed by Praween Kumar seeking a writ of continuing mandamus for clearing the large pendency of RTI applications and appeals. The petitioner sought directions for disposal of first appeals within the statutory limit of 45 days under Section 19(6) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, and for disposal of second appeals within 90 days or such reasonable time as the Court deemed fit. The petition relied on the Supreme Court’s judgment in Anjali Bhardwaj v. Union of India, reported in (2019) 18 SCC 246, to contend that the timeline for disposal must remain reasonable so that the right to information does not become ineffective.
The petitioner also asked for executive guidelines to ensure adverse entries in the Annual Confidential Reports of officers penalised three times or more under the RTI Act. Another prayer sought strict enforcement of Section 20(1) of the RTI Act by directing imposition of a penalty of Rs. 25,000 on Public Information Officers in all cases where information is delayed beyond 100 days without reasonable cause, with the amount to be deducted from the officer’s personal salary. The petition further sought interim compensation to citizens who allegedly suffered loss of opportunity because of excessive delay in furnishing information, treating such delay as a constitutional tort and a violation of Articles 19(1)(a) and 21 of the Constitution.
Counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Rajesh Kumar Sharma, placed before the Court Annexure P/4 to the writ petition, which contained information supplied to one Amarendra Kumar on April 28, 2025. According to that information, the total pendency of second appeals and complaints before the Bihar State Information Commission as of December 2024 was 28,291. The petitioner also referred to Sections 6, 7, 19(1) and 19(3) of the RTI Act, 2005. It was further submitted that under Section 15 of the Act, the State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners are to be appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Chief Minister, and that some posts were lying vacant.
Appearing for respondent nos. 3 and 4, Senior Advocate Lalit Kishore, along with Mrs. Binita Singh, submitted that a similar issue had already come up before the Supreme Court in Anjali Bhardwaj v. Union of India. He told the Bench that while the main matter had been disposed of on February 15, 2019, Miscellaneous Application No. 1979 of 2019 had been filed in that case. He also produced a copy of the Supreme Court’s order dated February 10, 2026, which indicated that in Bihar there are only four sanctioned posts of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners, out of which one post is vacant.
For the State, Mr. P.K. Shahi, Advocate General, informed the Court that an advertisement had been issued in December 2025 and that the selection process was likely to be finalised by the end of February 2026. He further stated that the available vacancies would be filled within two months. The High Court took the Supreme Court order dated February 10, 2026 on record.
The Bench recorded that, in view of the submissions made on behalf of the State, the Supreme Court had directed the State of Bihar to consider the desirability of a suitable increase in the sanctioned strength of the Commission, keeping in view the pendency of almost 30,000 appeals, and to file a response before the next date of hearing fixed there as April 28, 2026. Considering that the matter is sub judice before the Supreme Court, the Patna High Court directed that the case be listed on June 18, 2026, when counsel for both sides would apprise it of the status of Miscellaneous Application No. 1979 of 2019.
