New Delhi: A parliamentary panel will examine the implementation of the Right to Information Act and the functioning of the Central Information Commission amid questions being raised over mounting pendency before the information body.
More than 10,000 cases are pending before the Central Information Commission (CIC), which is now functioning at its full sanctioned strength with 11 information commissioners, leading to activists questioning its functioning.
The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice will also review government vacancies, vigilance administration, judicial infrastructure and public grievance redressal mechanisms.
According to a Lok Sabha bulletin issued Wednesday, under the Department of Personnel and Training, the committee will examine vacancies in the Central government, the functioning of the Central Administrative Tribunal, the effectiveness of vigilance administration, implementation of citizens’ charters and reservation policies for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Persons with Disabilities in Central government services.
For the Department of Justice, the selected subjects include an assessment of fast-track special courts, a review of Centrally-sponsored schemes for judicial infrastructure and an appraisal of the e-Courts Mission Mode Project.
The committee will also examine digitisation and the use of artificial intelligence in the justice delivery system, along with the performance of legal aid institutions in India.
It will also review public grievance redressal mechanisms, including strengthening the system and creating awareness about the CPGRAMS and CPENGRAMS portals.
Under the Department of Legal Affairs, it will examine the formulation and implementation of the National Litigation Policy and review the legal education system in the context of the ‘Viksit Bharat’ vision.
The Legislative Department would examine the availability of Supreme Court and high court judgments in languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The department-related standing committees were recently reconstituted for a period of one year and have been selecting subjects to be studied over the next year.
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