Civil bodies to appeal in SC for review of verdict on appointment of CIC, ICs

BHUBANESWAR: Civil society organisations including the Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan (OSAA) and Indian Institute of Education and Care (IIEC) would appeal before the Supreme Court to review its judgement on appointment of Information Commission. It was decided recently after a discussion in a State-level seminar on ‘Supreme Court Judgement on Appointment of Information Commission’ organised by the OSAA and IIEC here.

The delegates and participants of the seminar while debating on it welcomed the direction of the apex court to both the Centre and State Government for maintaining of transparency by giving public notification three months prior to the appointment. The judgement came in response to a PIL filed by Namit Sharma seeking direction from the Supreme Court for bringing transparency in respect of appointment of Information Commission.

According to OSAA State convener Pradip Pradhan, since 2005, it has been seen that both in the Centre and the States, many people appointed as Information Commissioner were inefficient and could not perform properly due to lack of judicial mind and huge pendency of the cases is quite visible in the office of all Information Commissions. There is hue and cry by RTI activists across the country against inefficiency of the Commission and demand for proper transparency in appointment of the Commission, he added.

But the RTI activists and delegates of different organisations said the court order on appointment of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (ICs) in the States need to be reviewed again.      

According to the judgment, the CIC at the Centre or State level shall only be a person who is or has been a Chief Justice of the High Court or a Judge of the Supreme Court of India and 50 per cent of post of ICs reserved for judicial people, while person to be designated as First Appellate Authority should be from law background with at least 20 years experience.

Civil Society members opined that these directions are not practically implementable and cannot do any justice to RTI Act. The judgement needs to be reviewed in the greater interest of RTI Act, said Pradhan, adding, “No steps should be taken either to dilute or limit the RTI Act which is the biggest tool in the hand of citizens to nail the corrupt bureaucracy.”