Describing the state government’s approach in appointing four information commissioners as whimsical, arbitrary and devoid of laid down procedures, the AP High Court on Thursday set aside the appointments and directed the state to conduct the selection process afresh and appoint new commissioners in six weeks time.
The Kiran Kumar Reddy government had appointed Varre Venkateshwarlu, Lam Tanthiya Kumari, Imtiaz Ahmed and M Vijayanirmala as information commissioners on February 6 this year. All these four persons are from the Congress party and though they are supposed to sever their political association with the party before they join the information commission, they did not do so, said the bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice K C Bhanu while delivering the verdict.
In selecting the new information commissioners, the state was directed to comply with the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act as well as the judgments of the courts including the recent one by the Supreme Court in the Namit Sarma vs Union of India case. The appointments were challenged by former Union home secretary K Padmanabhaiah and the Forum for Rule of Law.
The commissioners, whose appointments were ‘under challenge,’ too said that their affinity with the Congress will in no way affect their ability to independently function as information commissioners. But this was not the spirit of the law, which categorically says that they should cease to be members of that political party. That did not happen in this case, the bench said. Guv’s objection overlooked
Hyderabad: While Gandra Mohan Rao, the counsel representing Padmanabhaiah said that the state did not follow the procedure prescribed by the Act before filling the posts, K Vivek Reddy, counsel for Forum for Rule of Law, said that the required empanelment with a list of eligible candidates was also not done.
The need for giving wide publicity while inviting applications for the posts from persons of eminence in various fields and the need to keep the leader of the Opposition in the selection process were totally ignored, they said.“The SC made it clear that the government has to follow these procedures while making appointments to information commissions and despite that, the state of AP has given a go by to the order of the apex court also,” they said. “Worse still, the state has no material to show the basis for its conclusions in this case. What were the names they considered, where was the notification that called for the applications, where was the meritwise recommendations of the selection committee? In the absence of any such material, the whole selection process has turned out to be a mere colourable exercise of power and was done basing on extraneous considerations,” Gandra Mohan Rao said.The bench agreed with the arguments of the petitioners and nullified the appointments accordingly.
Earlier, governor ESL Narasimhan too had returned the file pertaining to these appointments raising similar objections. But when a determined state sent back to him the same file without considering any of his objections, the latter had no option than to appoint them as information commissioners.
The Kiran Kumar Reddy government had appointed Varre Venkateshwarlu, Lam Tanthiya Kumari, Imtiaz Ahmed and M Vijayanirmala as information commissioners on February 6 this year. All these four persons are from the Congress party and though they are supposed to sever their political association with the party before they join the information commission, they did not do so, said the bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice K C Bhanu while delivering the verdict.
In selecting the new information commissioners, the state was directed to comply with the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act as well as the judgments of the courts including the recent one by the Supreme Court in the Namit Sarma vs Union of India case. The appointments were challenged by former Union home secretary K Padmanabhaiah and the Forum for Rule of Law.
The commissioners, whose appointments were ‘under challenge,’ too said that their affinity with the Congress will in no way affect their ability to independently function as information commissioners. But this was not the spirit of the law, which categorically says that they should cease to be members of that political party. That did not happen in this case, the bench said. Guv’s objection overlooked
Hyderabad: While Gandra Mohan Rao, the counsel representing Padmanabhaiah said that the state did not follow the procedure prescribed by the Act before filling the posts, K Vivek Reddy, counsel for Forum for Rule of Law, said that the required empanelment with a list of eligible candidates was also not done.
The need for giving wide publicity while inviting applications for the posts from persons of eminence in various fields and the need to keep the leader of the Opposition in the selection process were totally ignored, they said.“The SC made it clear that the government has to follow these procedures while making appointments to information commissions and despite that, the state of AP has given a go by to the order of the apex court also,” they said. “Worse still, the state has no material to show the basis for its conclusions in this case. What were the names they considered, where was the notification that called for the applications, where was the meritwise recommendations of the selection committee? In the absence of any such material, the whole selection process has turned out to be a mere colourable exercise of power and was done basing on extraneous considerations,” Gandra Mohan Rao said.The bench agreed with the arguments of the petitioners and nullified the appointments accordingly.
Earlier, governor ESL Narasimhan too had returned the file pertaining to these appointments raising similar objections. But when a determined state sent back to him the same file without considering any of his objections, the latter had no option than to appoint them as information commissioners.
ORDER ORDER
HC terms appointment of Varre Venkateshwarlu, Lam Tanthiya Kumari, Imtiaz Ahmed and M Vijayanirmala as information commissioners whimsical, arbitrary and devoid of laid down procedures
All the four belonging to the Cong refused to sever their political links even after their appointment as information commissioners, court observed
State directed to comply with provisions of the RTI Act as well as judgments of the courts while selecting new commissioners
HC terms appointment of Varre Venkateshwarlu, Lam Tanthiya Kumari, Imtiaz Ahmed and M Vijayanirmala as information commissioners whimsical, arbitrary and devoid of laid down procedures
All the four belonging to the Cong refused to sever their political links even after their appointment as information commissioners, court observed
State directed to comply with provisions of the RTI Act as well as judgments of the courts while selecting new commissioners
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