Moneylife: National: Friday, January 18, 2019.
The selection committee headed by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet on the 24th January to finalise the
name of the next CBI chief, as the term of the current CBI chief will be over
on the 31st January. The government has reportedly initiated this process since
December 2018. In the meantime, a controversy is already brewing regarding the
appointment of Nageshwar Rao as the interim director but that’s another story.
Just like the appointment of information
commissioners of the RTI Act, the naming of the selection committee and the
short-listed candidates for these posts also demands transparency. While in the
past, this information was available under RTI requisition; recently, the
department of personnel & training (DoPT) which appoints them has defied
the Supreme Court order which directed it to make this information public. Now,
the DoPT is playing the same game of opaqueness in the case of the appointment
of the next CBI chief.
Activists Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita
Johri filed RTI applications regarding details of the meetings of the selection
committee (which consists of the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition,
and the chief justice of India (or a Supreme Court judge nominated by him)
including the date of meetings, copy of the agenda of meetings, copy of the
minutes of meetings and details of persons who attended each meeting.
Information was sought under the RTI Act about any process adopted by the
government to short-list candidates for consideration by the selection
committee; a copy of any short-list prepared; and details of any committee set
up to prepare such a short-list.
The DoPT has responded to each of these
RTI applications with the same summary response: “It is informed that as per
this department’s executive order No. 230/14/99-DPSE dated 08.07.2004 issued in
pursuance of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions dated 20.04.2004 given in CA
No. 4303/2002, amongst all the IPS officers of the senior most 4 batches in
service on the date of retirement of the (incumbent) director, CBI are needed
to be considered for filling up the post of new Director, CBI. The process of
selection of new Director in CBI has not attained finality…”
States Anjali Bharadwaj, “There is
complete lack of transparency in the process of appointment of the CBI
Director. The government has not provided information sought under the RTI Act
about details of the on-going selection process. This is clearly an attempt to
obfuscate and withhold information about the appointment process. No details
about the selection committee meetings or the process of short-listing
candidates have been provided.’’
She fears a repeat of December 2016 as
she says, “When the previous CBI director retired, the government failed to
convene a meeting of the selection committee to appoint the successor, and Mr.
Rakesh Asthana was named interim director. After a PIL was filed in the Supreme
Court, Mr. Alok Verma was selected and appointed as director. In order to
ensure public trust in the institution of the CBI, it is critical that appointment
of the director be made in a timely manner and there be transparency in the
process of appointment, which will enable public scrutiny.
As against such utter secrecy, which
would arouse the suspicion of every right thinking citizen, Commodore Lokesh
Batra states that, “In 2012 such information was given out and included file
notings too. I was also allowed inspection of files. It is strange that
Anjali’s and Amrita’s RTI applications have been thwarted.”
The information Batra sought included the
following:
a) Names, seniority and batch details of
IPS officers initially included for shortlisting by the CBI selection
board/committee headed by the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) for the
appointment of the next CBI director;
b) Names, seniority and batch details of
officers recommended in the panel for selection of CBI director and name of the
officer selected;
c) List of file/files with reference
numbers on which the selection process of the next CBI director was processed
by the selection committee headed by the CVC and by the appointment committee
of the cabinet;
d) Attested copies of the file/file
notings from time to time and when the process of selection for the post of the
next CBI director was initiated and
e) Permission for me to inspect all the
files concerned with the said issue.
Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri had
requested the following information recently, but they have been flatly refused the
information. The requisitions were as follows:
1. Information regarding all the meetings
held since 1 December 2018 of the committee constituted under Section 4(A) of
the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act to select/appoint the CBI Director:
a. Dates of all meetings
b. Copy of agenda of all meetings
c. Copy of
minutes/discussions/proceedings/verbatim recordings etc. of the proceedings of
all meetings
d. Name and designation of persons
attending each meeting.
1. Information (as defined in Section
2(f) of the RTI Act) on the process being adopted by the government to prepare
a short-list for the consideration of the selection committee set up (under
section 4A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act) to appoint the CBI
director upon the retirement of the incumbent director.
2. Copy of any short-list prepared by the
government for consideration by the selection committee set up (under section
4A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act) to appoint the CBI director
upon the retirement of the incumbent director
3. If any committee has been constituted
to prepare a short-list for consideration by the selection committee set up
(under section 4A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act) to appoint the
CBI Director upon the retirement of the incumbent director, please provide the
following information related to the said committee—
a. Order/notification regarding
constitution of the committee
b. Names of members of the committee
c. Date of all meetings of the committee
d. Copy of agenda of all meetings of the
committee e. Copy of minutes/ discussions/ proceedings/ verbatim recordings
etc. of the proceedings of all the meetings
f. Names and designations of persons
attending each meeting.
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