New Delhi: The affidavit submitted by the Centre in the Supreme Court in response to the court directing it on July 27 to submit by when and how it intends to fill posts of information commissioners has revealed that the Narendra Modi government has wanted to amend the Right to Information Act since 2016, when the last of the appointments to the Central information Commission were made.
Moreover, while it has not appointed any new commissioner since 2016, the Centre also did not inform any of the 225 applicants who had applied for the four vacancies which were advertised that year for the reasons behind the delay.
Centre’s affidavit admits July advertisement would only cover past four vacancies
More so, the Centre while advertising the posts again on July 27, the day the apex court was to hear the matter, did so for only the previous vacancies and not for the posts of three more information commissioners and the chief information commissioner of the CIC, which are due to fall vacant by December 1 this year, leaving the Commission working with just three information commissioners as against the sanctioned strength of 11.
In the affidavit, submitted by under secretary in the department of personnel and training (DoPT), the Government of India stated that it was “fully committed to implement the RTI Act and take affirmative actions to make sure that there is no stifling the functioning of the same”.
Making a mention of how the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to file an affidavit stating how many posts its proposed to fill pursuant to the advertisement placed by it on July 27, the affidavit state that “presently, there are four vacant posts of Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission that are under the purview of the aforesaid advertisement for now”.
The DoPT submitted that “suitable decision, in respect of the vacancies likely to arise in the future in CIC, would be taken subsequently according to the requirement/ exigencies at the time”.
The affidavit also stated that as per Section 12(3) of the RTI Act, the chief information commissioners and information commissioners are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the selection commission consisting of the prime minister, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union cabinet minister to be nominated by the prime minister.
Kharge invited to Selection Committee meeting only as “special invitee”, but affidavit states leader of single largest group in Lok Sabha shall be deemed to be LoP
Curiously, the affidavit went on to add that “where the Leader of Opposition in the House of the People has not been recognised as such, the Leader of the single largest group in opposition of the government in the House of the People shall be deemed to be the Leader of the Opposition”.
However, the Modi government has so far not made the necessary amendments to the effect and Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of Congress in Lok Sabha has only been invited to the Selection Committee meetings as a “special invitee’’. With no say in the matter of selection because of the “special invitee” status he has refused to attend these meetings.
Surprisingly, the Centre while alluding to the apex court’s observation on the Government of India issuing a “similar advertisement in the year 2016” but not making any appointments pursuant to it, stated that “the aforesaid selection process was not pursued pending the outcome of the process for amendment of the Act”.
“A process for amendment of the Right to Information Act, 2005 was also initiated to incorporate express / specific enabling provisions for determining the term of ‘office’, salaries and allowances payable to and other terms and conditions of service of the Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioners of the Central Information Commission and Chief State Information Commissioners and State Information Commissioners. The aforesaid selection process was not pursued pending the outcome of the process for amendment of the Act,” it submitted.
A petitioner in the case, Commodore (Retd.) Lokesh K. Batra, said according to information obtained by him there were 225 applicants who had applied for the posts of information commissioners in response to the 2016 advertisement. Moreover, he said, due to the Centre not filling up the posts, the pendency in the CIC stood at 24,222 as on September 11 (today).
Centre not serious about filling IC posts, treated earlier applicants shabbily
Batra charged that the Centre was not serious about filling up the posts. He said though the Centre issued an advertisement in July this year it provided “no details of numbers of ICs to be and also no information on service conditions.”
Further, he wondered if the Centre had not victimised the 225 applicants who had applied as two years later they “come to know that government had dropped the intention of appointing them”.
He said there was only a footnote in the new advertisement, which noted that: “Persons who may have applied earlier in response to advertisement dated 02.09.2016 are requested to apply afresh, if eligible.”
‘Still no specific time-frame for filling vacancies’
Another petitioner, Anjali Bharadwaj, issued a series of angry tweets expressing her displeasure at the manner in which after delaying the appointments to the Commission for two years, the Centre was still not committing itself to a “specific time-frame for filling vacancies”.
She charged that the BJP government wanted to amend the RTI Act since 2016 as it wanted to “undermine independence of commissions” and this was the reason it had not filled the vacancies in the CIC.
Bharadwaj also pointed out that the July 27 advertisement was also only about the four previous vacancies and not the next four that would occur by December 1. “At this rate, CIC will be headless after retirement of current chief,” she quipped adding that the “affidavit shows govt not intending to ensure greater transparency in appointment process.”