The Delhi High Court has directed the Central Government to finalize appointments to the post of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners..The government has been given six weeks to finalise the selection process..The post of CIC had been vacant since last year after Rajeev Mathur had demitted office. The petition had been filed pursuant to this development and had questioned the Government as to what steps had it taken to fill up the post, since the absence of a CIC ‘frustrated the purpose’ of the RTI Act..The High Court had previously taken a serious view of the situation and stated that it wished to personally monitor the appointment and selection process..Advocate Prashant Bhushan who appeared for the petitioner RK Jain, had often criticized the Government in unequivocal terms during the hearings and had termed the delay in appointments, as a ‘mere tactic to frustrate the process of ushering in transparency.’.Taking into account submissions passed by both sides, the Bench disposed off the petition today after passing certain directions;.“a) The selection process that has already been commenced shall be finalized within six weeks from today and the three vacancies of Information Commissioners existing as of today shall be filled up amongst the 553 applications that were received in response to the said two notifications. .b) The selection process pursuant to the Circular dated 09.09.2015 shall be confined for selection and appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner in the vacancy that would arise w.e.f. 02.12.2015 and one Information Commissioner which is likely to arise w.e.f. 02.12.2015.”.You can read the judgment here.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Central Government to finalize appointments to the post of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners..The government has been given six weeks to finalise the selection process..The post of CIC had been vacant since last year after Rajeev Mathur had demitted office. The petition had been filed pursuant to this development and had questioned the Government as to what steps had it taken to fill up the post, since the absence of a CIC ‘frustrated the purpose’ of the RTI Act..The High Court had previously taken a serious view of the situation and stated that it wished to personally monitor the appointment and selection process..Advocate Prashant Bhushan who appeared for the petitioner RK Jain, had often criticized the Government in unequivocal terms during the hearings and had termed the delay in appointments, as a ‘mere tactic to frustrate the process of ushering in transparency.’.Taking into account submissions passed by both sides, the Bench disposed off the petition today after passing certain directions;.“a) The selection process that has already been commenced shall be finalized within six weeks from today and the three vacancies of Information Commissioners existing as of today shall be filled up amongst the 553 applications that were received in response to the said two notifications. .b) The selection process pursuant to the Circular dated 09.09.2015 shall be confined for selection and appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner in the vacancy that would arise w.e.f. 02.12.2015 and one Information Commissioner which is likely to arise w.e.f. 02.12.2015.”.You can read the judgment here.
