Supreme Court seeks Centre’s plan for appointment of Information Commissioners

The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to file an affidavit mentioning the steps it plans to take to appoint Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission (CIC)..The Bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan told Assistant Solicitor General Pinky Anand, representing the Centre, that the affidavit must mention the procedure as well as the time frame within which such appointments are expected to be made..The present number of vacancies, as mentioned by the ASG, stands at four. However, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, told the Court that more vacancies are expected to be created before the end of this year..A contentious issue raised by Bhushan before the Court was that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Government of India has today issued a fresh advertisement inviting applications to fill the vacant posts in the CIC..Justice Ashok Bhushan, in jest, said,. “At least they did something.”.However, Bhushan brought it to the notice of the Court that the fresh advertisement mentions that the applicants who had applied in 2016 will be required to apply again..The Court then asked the Centre why the applicants of 2016 were being asked to reapply. ASG Anand told the Court that the applications had not gone through the last time..The Court directed the Centre to also include the reasons for which the 2016 applications did not go through in its affidavit. Various state governments have also been directed to file affidavits with their plan for appointments to the State Information Commissions.