Moneylife:
Maharashtra: Saturday, 29 February 2020.
After
the drama starting with foot-dragging in appointing information commissioners,
followed by the Right to Information (RTI) activists petitioning to the Supreme
Court, which, in turn; ordered the Central and various state governments to
appoint them in a transparent manner and within the time frame, there’s another
twist to the meandering tale.
The
Maharashtra government now has thought it fit to first take it in writing from
the applicants to the information commissioners’ post, to agree, in black and
white, if they are willing to be appointed as information commissioners as per
the amended rules of the RTI Act 2019!
Remember,
the amended rules that are already in force, have broken the spine of the RTI
Act by altering various aspects of the appointment of information
commissioners. As per this amendment, which the BJP government got passed
through both the houses of the Parliament without even a discussion, the tenure
of the chief information commissioners and information commissioners of the Centre
or the state governments, has been reduced to three years. Besides, the
salaries would be as per the whims and fancies of the Centre/state governments.
Also, information commissioners who were on par with the chief election
commissioners/ Supreme Court judges would find their autonomous powers and the
binding to be appointed for five years, crippled. The new appointees would have
to abide by these rules if they want to be posted as information commissioners.
A
circular dated 20 February 2020 (which will be soon put up as an
advertisement), by the general administration department (GAD) of the
Maharashtra government, states that:
Due
to the change in salary, allowances, term of office and other terms and
conditions of service of the state information commissioners, all applicants
who have applied for the post of the state information commissioners in the
Maharashtra State Commission as per the advertisement dated 7 June 2019, must
send by post as well as through email a letter in Marathi and English in the
enclosed format, regarding the application made and their willingness to be
appointed to the post of state information commissioners, with the words
``willingness for the post of State Information Commissioner’’ superscribed on
the envelope, to Secretary (O&M), General Administration Department, 1st
floor, Mantralaya, Mumbai and to sic-application gov.in, within 15 days from
the date of the publication of the circular.
Now
the government of Maharashtra has asked all the applicants to furnish the
consent letter in the following format as per the amended rules:
According
to the advertisement dated 7 June 2019, I have applied for the post of State
Information Commissioner in the Maharashtra State Information Commission.
Right
to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances and Other Terms and
Conditions of Service of the Chief Information Commissioner, Information
Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, State Chief Information
Commissioner and State Information Commissioners in the State Information
Commission) Rules, 2019. Notification on this subject has been published by the
Central government on 24 October 2019.
As per the notification dated 24.10.2019, the Central government has modified
the salary, allowances, term of office and other terms and conditions of
service of the State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information
Commissioners in the State Information Commission.
I
have taken note of these changes and I agree to maintain the application made
and will impress for the post of State Information Commissioner.
It
may be noted that the general administration department (GAD) had invited
applications from candidates for the three posts in Nashik, Pune and Nagpur
benches of the State Information Commission (SIC) in June 2019. Accordingly,
some have applied for the post of SIC. The state government had also appointed
a search committee to shortlist the names of the candidates to be sent to the
appointment committee.
States
RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, “The advertisement in this regard is yet to be
published in the newspapers. If the government publishes this advertisement in
next 3-4 days it will receive consent letters by 15th March.
"Then
the search committee will follow objective criteria for shortlisting of
applicants and prepare a panel of such short-listed candidates, along with the
criteria applied. Supposing it takes a month or so, till 15th April.
And after that, the same shall be notified on the website for the
appropriate time. Say about a month or so i.e. 15th May. Thereafter, the
short-listed list would be placed for consideration by the committee led by the
chief minister; which in turn, will make its recommendations to the Governor.
If all goes well, the state information commissioners could be appointed by
June end in Maharashtra.’’
It
may be recalled that the Supreme Court had ordered the Centre and eight states
to make appointments to information commissions in a timely and transparent
manner. The eight state governments were: Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha,
Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat. As for Maharashtra, the
Supreme Court had directed that, considering the large number of pending cases
in the Maharashtra State Information Commission, it should function at full
strength of 11 commissioners (chief and 10 information commissioners).
According
to Venkatesh Nayak, with the amendments, the Central government has the
discretionary power to relax of any the rules with regard to any class or
category of persons in future. Rule 21 gives absolute power to the Central
government to decide on any other allowances or service conditions not
specifically covered by the 2019 Rules and its decision will be binding. Rule 23 makes the Central government the
final arbiter with regard to the interpretation of these Rules. Thus, the
autonomy of the information commission from governmental interference as was
protected by the RTI Act passed by Parliament in 2005, has been consigned to
the dustbin and the stranglehold of the Central government has been established
on all 29 Information Commissions across the country.
.JPG)
.JPG)
