Anjali Bhardwaj v. Union of India (continuing)

Anjali Bhardwaj v. Union of India (continuing) (Supreme Court of India, 2018-02-15) WP (C) 436/2018 is a ruling on the Right to Information Act, 2005 — Sections 12, 15. Government must fill IC vacancies within fixed timelines. The Supreme Court continues to monitor Information Commission vacancies and disposal rates.

Government must fill IC vacancies within fixed timelines.

The Supreme Court continues to monitor Information Commission vacancies and disposal rates. Government must follow transparent appointment processes and fill vacancies within reasonable time. Full strength of CIC restored in December 2025 after several years of partial vacancies.

• Section 12
• Section 15

IC vacancy + transparency monitoring; 1 CIC + 10 ICs strength restored Dec 2025.

• Citation: WP (C) 436/2018
• Court: Supreme Court of India
• Date: 2018-02-15
• Outcome: ongoing
• Reporter / Cause-list: WP (C) 436/2018

This ruling is part of the 300+ case-law corpus at RTI Wiki Case-law Database. Every named case sets a precedent that you can cite in your own §19(1) First Appeal or §19(3) Second Appeal. Information Commissions and FAAs are bound to consider properly cited authority.

1. Day 30 — silence by PIO = deemed refusal under §7(2). File §19(1) First Appeal in 30 days using First Appeal Builder.
2. Day 60-90 — if FAA also refuses, file §19(3) Second Appeal to the State Information Commission (or CIC for central authorities).
3. Beyond 18 months pending — writ petition under Article 226 to the High Court.
4. Parallel CPGRAMS complaint at pgportal.gov.in for service-delivery push.

Use our Citation Formatter to format the citation correctly. Pair with Bhagat Singh v. CIC (2007) (procedural objections) and Adesh Kumar v. UoI (2014) (irrelevance is not a ground) — these two Delhi HC rulings cover most everyday refusal scenarios.

• CPIO Supreme Court v. Subhash Chandra Agarwal (Constitution Bench) — office of CJI is public authority
• Anjali Bhardwaj v. UoI — IC vacancies + transparency
• Girish Deshpande — §8(1)(j) personal information test
• Bhagat Singh v. CIC — procedural compliance
• Adesh Kumar v. UoI — irrelevance is not a ground
• Full case-law database (300+)

• AI RTI Drafter
• First Appeal Builder
• Master directory of landmark RTI rulings
• RTI Act, 2005

• RTI Case-Law Search — full corpus
• PIO/FAA Knowledge Base
• 10 landmark Supreme Court RTI rulings
• High Court RTI rulings
• Landmark CIC decisions
• RTI Act, 2005 — full text

Last reviewed: 23 April 2026.