DNA:Friday, January 20, 2012.
The Bombay high court on Thursday admitted the petition filed by a social activist seeking supervision by the high court in appointment of Information Commissioners in the state.
A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice Roshan Dalvi admitted the petition filed by Raj Awasthi and kept it for final hearing on April 16.
Anil Anturkar, counsel for Awasthi, argued the information commissioner are either appointed by the Governor or by a committee comprising of Chief Minister and the leader of opposition. “The only qualification is the s/he should be a person of eminence of any field. By this qualification every second person would be qualified to be appointed as an information commissioner,” said Anturkar.
Anturkar pointed out two different orders by former information commissioner Ramanand Tiwari in two applications seeking similar information. “In one case he has allowed the information and in second case he has rejected the information. Both applications are made by the same application and seek similar information,” said Anturkar.
Assistant government pleader Niranjan Pandit said that the rules do not prescribe any consultation with the high court for appointing an information commissioner. “The Act does not have such a requirement,” said Pandit.
Anturkar pointed out that the RTI Act came into force on October 12, 2005. However, the government had issued notification constituting information commissioner on October 11, 2005 and also appointed an information commissioner on October 7. “Their appointment before the Act is enacted is illegal,” said Anturkar.
“The government realised this mistake after five years and it issued another notification on August 21, 2010, saying that by this GR they are ratifying all the orders passed by the information commissioner who was appointed before the Act came into force,” said Anturkar.
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