NEW DELHI: With the Right To Information Act set to mark 20 years since it was implemented on October 12, a new report on the performance of information commissions shows that over 4 lakh cases were pending in information commissions across India as of June 30 this year. Moreover, six out of 29 information commissions (ICs) in the country were defunct for varying periods of time between July 1, 2024 to October 7, 2025 and two, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh, continue to be defunct.These findings are part of a “Report Card on the Performance of Information Commissions in India, 2024-25” released by civil society organisation Satark Nagrik Sangathan that brings out the report annually based on information accessed under the RTI Act.On the estimated time it would take for an appeal or complaint to be disposed, the assessment shows that the Telangana SIC would take an estimated 29 years and 2 months – where a matter filed on July 1, 2025 would be disposed in the year 2054.“SIC of Tripura, would take an estimated 23 years to dispose a matter and Chhattisgarh would take 11 years. SICs of Madhya Pradesh and Punjab would take 7 years. The assessment shows that 18 commissions would take more than 1 year to dispose an appeal/complaint filed on July 1, 2025,” it is highlighted.Over 2.41 lakh appeals and complaints were registered between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 by 27 ICs. During the same time period, 1,82,165 cases were disposed by these 27 commissions. Over 4.1 lakh appeals and complaints were pending on June 30, 2025 in the 29 information commissions.The report also draws attention to the fact that three commissions- the Central Information Commission and the state ICs of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are currently without a chief. This is the seventh time in the last 11 years that the CIC is functioning without a chief. The CIC became headless on September 13, 2025, when the chief demitted office upon attaining the age of 65 years.The analysis of penalties imposed by information commissions shows that the commissions did not impose penalties in 98% of the cases where penalties were potentially possible to impose. The RTI Act empowers the ICs to impose penalties of upto Rs. 25,000 on erring PIOs for violations of the RTI Act. In terms of penalty imposition, of the 23 commissions which provided relevant information, penalty was imposed in a total of 1,252 cases. Penalty amounting to Rs. 2.32 crore was imposed by 23 commissions during the period under review.