New Delhi: The Centre was on Wednesday asked by the Delhi High Court to shortlist within a month the names of possible candidates for filling five out of the ten sanctioned posts of Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, lying vacant since 2009.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw directed the Department of Personnel, which had set up a search panel headed by the Cabinet Secretary for the purpose, to complete the exercise and place the shortlisted names before the selection committee headed by the Prime Minister within a month.

The court's direction came on a plea by transparency activist R K Jain who had pointed out that due to want of requisite number of Information Commissioners in CIC, the disposal of cases, filed before it under the RTI Act, are taking more than two years.

The court also directed the government to frame recruitment rules within a month to enable the CIC to make its own appointments with regard to the subordinate staff of the Commission.

Jain's counsel Pranav Sachdeva argued before the court that almost 30,000 cases are pending before the CIC, which takes years to dispose of a matter.

He argued that as per the RTI Act, information should be given within 30 days and if the information is delayed, the purpose of the Act is defeated.