The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed its September 2012 ruling that "only" serving and retired judges of the apex court and chief justices of state high courts can head the central and state information commissions.
Passing an interim order pending its decision on the review petition filed by the Centre against the verdict, a bench led by Justice A K Patnaik stayed the direction making it mandatory for information commissions to work in benches of two members each – a "judicial member" and an "expert member".
"We further direct that wherever the chief information commissioner is of the opinion that intricate questions of law will have to be decided…, he will ensure that the matter is heard by a bench of which at least one member has knowledge and experience in the field of law," said the bench.
The interim order followed an application by former information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi and activist Aruna Roy stating that the court’s earlier ruling had caused a lot of uncertainty in the functioning of information commissions and a virtual freeze on appointments of information commissioners.
The court also allowed the government to fill vacant posts in the panels in accordance with the RTI Act, and as per the operational part of its verdict.