Taking serious note of vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and state information commissions (SICs), the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and the state governments to apprise it about the steps taken to fill up the posts. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said the states that have initiated the process of filling up the vacant posts should complete the process within four weeks. Pointing out that there are eight vacancies in CIC out of the 11 sanctioned posts including that of chief information commissioner, the bench asked Additional Solicitor General Brijender Chahar, appearing for the Centre, to file an affidavit within two weeks about the steps taken to fill up the vacancies. Since February 2019, the apex court has given several directions on the need for timely appointments to the transparency watchdog by the Centre and states so that the 2005 law on the Right to Information remains effective. The court said on Tuesday that in Jharkhand