keeping in view the recent supreme court verdicts,what are the legal
tangles in these 8 appointments?
if some one onboard has order pf hon. supreme court,please share.
regards
urvashi
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http://www.newkerala.com/news/newsplus/worldnews-70977.html
8 new Information Commissioners to be appointed soon in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow, Aug 23 (UNI)
Uttar Pradesh government today short listed eight persons from various
fields for appointment on vacant posts of Information Commissioners
(ICs) in UP State Information Commission (UPSIC). The list would now
be sent for Governor's approval by the Chief Minister very soon.
The meeting of three member panel, authorised for selection of
information commissioners and chief information commissioner, was held
at Chief Minister's official residence where eight names were short
listed from a list of 112 persons who had applied for coveted posts.
Currently only two information commissioners Khadijatul Kubra and Gyan
Prakash Maurya were holding offices in UPSIC as eight posts were lying
vacant hampering functioning of the commission responsible for
implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act in the state.
The selection panel including Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, minister
for Health and Medical Education Ahmed Hasan and leader of opposition
in state assembly Swami Prasad Maurya was constituted yesterday.
According to sources, among persons selected for post of ICs were
lawyers, former bureaucrats and media persons. The two members of the
panel refrained from naming the persons selected and said, with
approval of the Governor appointment of new information commissioners
was likely to be announced very soon.
Mr Maurya while coming out of the meeting, said, "the CM has been
authorised for selection of Information Commissioners and I hope, with
their appointment, UPSIC will work in a transparent and efficient
manner." Since the appointment of chief information commissioner and
information commissioners was solely depend on the ruling party, UPSIC
was faced to allegations of politicisation which was denting its
credibility and functioning both. Samajwadi party itself had held the
appointment of present chief information commissioner R S Pankaj as
political one which was aimed at serving interests of the then ruling
BSP.
The appointment of Khadijatul Kubra as information commissioner during
previous BSP regime had invited much criticism from opposition and RTI
activists.
The apex court recently in an order have held political appointment
responsible for over all detoriation in functioning of information
commissions in the country. (UNI)
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http://www.deccanherald.com/content/265852/sc-stays-appointment-information-commissioners.html
SC stays appointment of Information Commissioners in CIC
New Delhi, Jul 20, 2012, (PTI) :
The Supreme Court has asked the government not to appoint any more
information commissioners in the Central Information Commission till
it decides on the plea making it mandatory for the transparency body
to have members from judicial background.
A Bench comprising Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar passed the
order to this effect while reserving its judgement on the petition
challenging the validity of section 12 of the Right to Information
Act, 2005, which deals with the appointment of Chief Information
Commissioner and 10 other information commissioners.
The petition filed by one Namit Sharma has contended that since the
work of the CIC under the RTI Act is mainly connected with the law,
members in the transparency panel should have legal background.
However, government has opposed the petition contending that since the
function of the CIC is like a quasi-judicial body, it could not be
made mandatory that the members should have judicial background.
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http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-22/bhopal/31382289_1_information-commissioners-cic-appointment
Chief information commissioner appointment may hit a roadblock
Joseph John, TNN Apr 22, 2012, 02.18AM IST
Tags:roadblock|CIC|Chief information commissioner appointmentBHOPAL:
The state government move to appoint chief information commissioner
(CIC) by the end of April may hit a roadblock with the Supreme Court
stating Friday that it would lay down guidelines to ensure that posts
of information commissioners at the centre and state commissions do
not become "property of a political set-up".
The post of state's CIC is lying vacant following the retirement of P
P Tiwari on March 26 this year. There are strong indications that
chief secretary Avani Vaish, who is scheduled to retire on April 30,
is in the race for the top RTI Commission post. While an information
commissioner Mahesh Pandey relinquished his post on February 24 as his
tenure ended, nine posts of information commissioners are also lying
vacant in the state.
The apex court bench, comprising Justice G S Singhvi and Justice S J
Mukopadhaya on Friday made it clear that the court would now "lay down
the law," taking strong exception to the manner in which candidates
were being hand-picked by governments without making vacancies for
appointment of information commissioners under the RTI Act known to
the public. The court's observations came while hearing an appeal by
those whose appointment as commissioners to the Tamil Nadu information
commission was set aside by the TN high court.
"Now, the state government cannot take any decision in haste. For the
sake of ensuring greater transparency in the appointments under the
historic transparency law, either the state will now have to wait till
Supreme Court lays down the guidelines or it would have to follow the
procedure adopted by the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT)
for appointment of commissioners to the central information
commission," RTI activist Ajay Dubey told TOI.
"We will submit a memorandum to the Governor soon, seeking a freeze on
all appointments to state information commission till the Supreme
Court laid down the guidelines," he said.
RTI activists had already submitted a memorandum to the state
government in November last year, pointing out lack of transparency in
the selection and appointment of information commissioners and
demanding action to ensure that appointments are made in a fair and
transparent manner. Subsequently, the governor had forwarded the
memorandum to the chief minister's office.
Bureaucratic circles are tight-lipped over immediate fallout of the SC
move to frame guidelines as name of incumbent state chief secretary
Avani Vaish, IAS officer of 1975 batch, is already in circulation for
state CIC post.
"I think you are putting the cart before the horse. As of now, the
procedures for selection are clearly mentioned in the RTI Act. It's a
matter to be examined whether the procedure for appointments to
information commissions in all states could be stalled till
formulation of any such guidelines by the court," quipped a senior
state government official.
