Delhi High Court questions Centre over CIC appointment; Says Court interference necessary

The institution that was established as the country’s primary watchdog is headless. And the Delhi High Court is not happy about it. A petition was filed in the High Court questioning the failure of the government in appointing a Chief Information Commissioner; the post has been lying vacant since August 2014 when Rajeev Mathur demitted office. Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner submitted that the government was delaying the exercise with an intention to ‘frustrate the right to information.’.Bhushan also said that an advertisement inviting applications had been issued July last year and subsequently various meetings were held in October. These meetings, evidently, have not borne fruit thus far. Expressing regret over the vacant posts, a Bench comprising Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Deepa Sharma asked the government,.‘These are important posts. What has taken you so long to arrive at a list of suitable appointees?’.Appearing for the Union, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain told the Bench that the process had been initiated but the applications had to be vetted in a thorough manner due to the nature of the post itself..Jain also said that the government should not be hurried in a cumbersome exercise such as this, and that clearance reports from intelligence agencies were required before shortlisting the candidates. Proposing that the Search Committee constituted for this purpose would be able to finish the task of shortlisting candidates within a period of six weeks, Jain said that the final appointments would be made within three months. .Responding to the time sought by Jain, Bhushan argued that this exercise has already been going on for the past year. Opposing a lengthy adjournment, Bhushan stated that the shortlisting process for two posts had already been completed last year so the government should be making these appointments. Instead the government is waiting to fill up vacancies en masse and thereby leaving the institution in a state of disarray. Amidst heated arguments from both sides, the Bench observed,.“Unless the Court interferes, vacancies in these institutions never get filled up. Once this Writ Petition is closed, we would never be able to determine whether the government made the requisite appointments or not. If they don’t take the necessary steps, the issue may be re-agitated in contempt proceedings. Therefore, we would like to monitor the progress of the Government in expediting the process of appointments to the post of Chief Information Commissioner and also other Information Commissioners.”.The Bench directed the government to provide an update on the efforts taken towards filling up of vacancies and posted the matter for further hearing on May 11.