Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Gujarat HC notice over vacant posts in state information commission

Times of India: Ahmedabad: Wednesday, 01 July 2015.
Gujarat high court on Tuesday issued notice to the state government in response to a PIL seeking direction to fill up five vacant posts of information commissioners besides Chief Information Commissioner in the state information commission.
Petitioner Praful Desai has filed this petition and urged the court to ask the government to appoint five additional information commissioners besides the present strength in the commission so that the appeals under the RTI Act could be finalized expeditiously.
Desai submitted that looking at increasing pendency of RTI applications and appeals, an RTI activist Amit Jethava had filed a PIL and the HC ordered for appointment of two information commissioners. Two years later, Desai himself filed a PIL because pendency was increasing again. The court again ordered for appointment and the commission got two information commissioners.
However, the latest two appointments were canceled by the high court on basis of Desai's petition that the persons appointed as information commissioners did not fulfill the required criteria. Now the government should fill the vacant posts so that people who seek information under the RTI laws get justice quickly. At present, it takes two years for the commission to finalize an appeal.
Further hearing is kept on July 31.