Times of India: New Delhi: Saturday, October 25, 2014.
Two months
after the Central Information Commission was left headless, the government has
sought applications for the post. The absence of a chief information
commissioner not only leaves all decisions made by the commission up for
challenge in a court of law but has also had an adverse impact on the pending
backlog of cases.
The notice
issued by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) on Friday gives
applicants time till November 24 to submit their resumes. The RTI act provides
that the CIC must be a person of eminence in public life with wide knowledge
and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management among
other fields. The notice comes after activist Lokesh Batra had sought to know
action being taken by the government on the appointment of the CIC and the
information commissioners.
Other
activists and former information commissioners too had written to President
Pranab Mukherjee and PM Narendra Modi seeking urgent appointments to the
positions. The Central Information Commission has been headless since August
22, 2014.
Expressing
grave concern at the state of affairs activists including Aruna Roy, Nikhil
Dey, former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah and former
information commissioner Deepak Sandhu Gandhi had pointed to the backlog of
close to 25,000 appeals and complaints pending in the commission. "Often people
have to wait for more than a year for their appeals and complaints to be heard.
The lack of a chief information commissioner will cause the pendency in the
commission to further increase," the letter to the President said.
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