Over 3.85 lakh cases pending in 28 information commissions as of June 2026: report

India’s Central and State Information Commissions are statutory bodies that oversee the Right to Information process. They examine appeals and complaints when people do not receive information from public authorities. The Central Information Commission, or CIC, covers central government bodies. State Information Commissions cover authorities within their respective states.

Their main mechanism is review. A citizen can approach a commission after an information request is denied, ignored, or inadequately answered. The commission can consider the dispute and issue an order. This makes the bodies an important route for challenging official non-response, although the provided article does not detail their full legal powers.

The report shows why their performance matters. On June 30, 2026, 28 commissions had 3,85,716 appeals and complaints pending. The CIC alone had 39,121 pending cases, and its estimated disposal time was two years and three months. Vacancies and slow disposal rates were identified as causes of delay.

The backlog measures appeals and complaints awaiting disposal by Information Commissions. On June 30, 2026, 28 commissions together had 3,85,716 pending matters. This was lower than the 4,13,972 pending complaints reported across 29 commissions on June 30, 2025, although Meghalaya’s data was unavailable for the newer period.

Maharashtra had the largest reported backlog, with 77,397 pending appeals and complaints. Chhattisgarh followed with 52,559, based on data available on December 10, 2025. Bihar had 42,243 pending matters, while the CIC had 39,121, up from 24,102 on June 30, 2025.

The figures show that high case registration can coexist with a large queue. Maharashtra registered 55,201 matters and disposed 54,985, the highest totals in both categories. The report links continuing delays to vacancies and a tardy disposal rate, leaving thousands of cases unresolved.

The estimated waiting time shows how long a newly filed appeal or complaint might take to be disposed of if current conditions continue. The report found that 14 of the 28 commissions had waiting times of one year or more. Such delays can make information arrive long after the issue that prompted the request.

The Central Information Commission illustrates the problem sharply. Its estimated time for disposing of an appeal or complaint was two years and three months. The CIC had 39,121 matters pending on June 30, 2026, compared with 24,102 on June 30, 2025. During the period, it registered 31,179 matters but returned 14,603.

The report attributed delays to vacancies and a “tardy rate” of disposal. Other examples were more severe. Jharkhand disposed of no cases and stopped registering new appeals and complaints. Himachal Pradesh had been defunct since July 3, 2025, when the findings were published.

Information Commissions need functioning benches and commissioners to examine appeals, hear complaints, and issue decisions. When posts remain vacant, fewer people are available to handle the incoming workload. Existing officials may then face larger caseloads, making each decision take longer and increasing the pending queue.

The second problem is the rate of disposal. If a commission closes cases more slowly than it receives them, new matters accumulate even when some cases are being decided. The report described this as a “tardy rate” of disposal. The CIC registered 31,179 matters during the review period, while its pending total reached 39,121 by June 30, 2026.

The result is a self-reinforcing backlog. More pending files mean more work competing for limited capacity. The report found 14 commissions with estimated waits of at least one year, including a two-year-and-three-month estimate for the CIC. Filling vacancies and improving disposal would directly address the stated causes.

The Right to Information is useful only when requested records arrive in time to matter. If an appeal or complaint remains unresolved for years, a citizen may be unable to use the information while a dispute, public service problem, or accountability concern is still active. The article documents the scale of this delay but does not describe individual citizens’ cases.

The mechanism is straightforward. A delayed commission decision postpones the answer to whether information should be provided. The CIC’s estimated disposal time was two years and three months, while 14 commissions had waits of at least one year. During that period, the requester remains without a final decision on the disputed information.

Long delays can therefore weaken transparency in practice. They also make the appeal route less effective for time-sensitive questions. The report links the delays to vacancies and slow disposal, while examples from Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh show how severely access can suffer when a commission stops functioning normally.

Returning an appeal or complaint without passing an order means the commission did not issue a recorded decision on the matter’s substance. The report provides no reasons for these returns, so their causes cannot be established from the available text. It does state that nine of 23 commissions supplying relevant information had returned matters during the review period.

The CIC is the clearest example. It returned 14,603 appeals and complaints while registering 31,179 between July 2025 and June 30, 2026. A return without an order is different from disposal through a reasoned decision: the text does not show that the requester received a ruling on access to the information.

When a commission stops registering new cases, fresh appeals and complaints are not formally added to its docket. That blocks the normal review channel for new applicants. The report said Jharkhand had stopped registering new matters and disposed of none during the period, indicating a serious breakdown in case handling.

The Right to Information, or RTI, is a legal framework that allows citizens to request information held by public authorities. It supports transparency by giving people a formal way to ask about government records, decisions, and actions. The supplied article assumes this framework but does not explain its full legal provisions.

Its accountability mechanism includes appeals and complaints. When a requester does not receive information, or disputes the response, the matter can reach an Information Commission. The commission can review the dispute and issue a decision. This gives citizens an avenue beyond the original authority, although the article does not list every remedy available under RTI.

The system’s effectiveness depends on timely decisions. The report found 3,85,716 pending appeals and complaints across 28 commissions on June 30, 2026. The CIC’s estimated wait was two years and three months. Such delays can reduce RTI’s practical power, while vacancies and slow disposal continue to burden the appeal process.