A week after Indian Express reported that a draft note prepared by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the Prime Minister’s Office had downgraded the salaries and tenure of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and the Information Commissioners (ICs) of the Central Information Commission and the state information commissions, there has been no official word on the matter.
‘Government violating pre-legislative consultation policy’
This measure, RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj of Satark Nagrik Sangathan argued, went against the grain of the norms laid down by the pre-legislative consultation policy that was passed in February 2014, a few months before the Modi government assumed power.
Ideally pre-legislative consultation, she said, should take place in all such matters. “Either the government should say that it does not believe in such consultations or information should be released in a transparent manner to invite comments,” she said.
Bhardwaj lamented how that information about the draft was partially leaked. “It is typical of how this government functions without placing necessary documents in the public domain,” she said.
‘A very dangerous way, leads to speculation’
Bhardwaj said “this is a very dangerous way of doing things. People are left guessing and there is speculation, but no one knows what the actual suggestion or draft states.”
Bhardwaj also said that when the government is bringing in something which defines people’s fundamental right to information or to know, there should be a discussion before it. However, she added, “discussions have not been happening.”
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Final draft of RTI Amendment Bill 2019 differed from initial reports
Even when the RTI Amendment Bill 2019 was brought, the rights activist recalled that “it was in a hush-hush manner and there was no discussion before it.”
In that case too, Bhardwaj recollected how some parts of the Bill were released selectively to the media but later on, it turned out that these were markedly different from what the Bill finally proposed.
“For example, it was stated that the decisions pertaining to salary and perks of the commissioners of the State Information Commissions would be taken by the states and of the Central Information Commission by the Centre, but in the final proposal the Centre was empowered to decide on the SICs too,” she said.
Representative image. Illustration: The Wire
Rules not framed despite passing of law
In the immediate case, Bhardwaj said that when the central government came under pressure that they had not framed the rules with respect to the amendments to the RTI Act made this year, they gave out some information through an “unverified report”. I
t was in July that the Centre amended Section 13 and Section 16 of the RTI Act to provide that the appointment of the CIC and ICs would be “for such term as may be prescribed by the Central Government” and that their salaries, allowances and other terms of service would be “prescribed by the Central Government.”
With there being no official word on the draft from the Centre, Bhardwaj said, “Now we are left guessing. The Centre has neither come forward to state if the contents of the report are true or not. When some people enquired with the ministry, the officers refused to give any answers”.
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She said that if the report was indeed correct, it would show that the government’s stand and the DoPT minister’s assurances in parliament that there was no intention to downgrade the salaries and tenures of information commissioners were at a variance.
CIC salary at par with cabinet secretary’s
According to the report, the draft proposed giving the CIC and ICs of the Central Information Commission ranks equal to those of the cabinet secretary and secretary to the government of India respectively. It called for treating the CIC as a “first among equals”. They earlier enjoyed salaries and tenures equivalent to that of the chief election commissioner.
The draft also sought to do away with the earlier five-year term for CIC and ICs as was provided in the Right to Information Act of 2005. Quoting “sources”, the report said that the DoPT had proposed reducing the tenure of CIC and the ICs to three years.
In the case of the State Information Commissions, the report said that the draft had proposed pay and perks equivalent to the secretary to the government of India to the CIC and that of the additional secretary to the ICs.
On finalising the rules, it said, that the DoPT would need to take the approval of the Prime Minister, who heads the department.