The Times of India: Kochi: Thursday, May 24, 2012.
The appointment of state information commissioners cannot be carried out through direct recruitment, state government informed the Kerala high court on Wednesday.
Responding to a petition filed by Kerala RTI Federation secretary and high court lawyer D B Binu, the state government has submitted that guidelines for appointing the commissioners are laid out in the Right to Information Act, 2005 and the government cannot deviate from the procedure laid out in it.
According to the act, the commissioners have to be appointed by a committee consisting of the chief minister, a cabinet minister nominated by the chief minister and the opposition leader. This procedure has to be followed and a direct recruitment is not possible, the government submitted before the division bench of acting chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice A M Shaffique on Wednesday.
In the petition, RTI activist Binu had alleged that the appointments are being conducted on the basis of political affiliations and the act specifically prohibits such appointments.
The high court had earlier sought the guidelines for appointing information commissioners while considering another petition by Binu. State government had then sought time to file an affidavit and adjourned the case.
While the petition was still pending, the selection committee met on May 17 and recommended the name of INTUC leader Vithura Sasi and Kerala Congress (M) activist Kuriyas Kumbalakuzhi for appointment as information commissioners.
According to the petitioner, opportunity should have been provided to qualified persons to be appointed as information commissioners and the current procedure is violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
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