Former top cop, retd judge join info panel; activists cry foul

Times of India: Chennai: Monday, 10 August 2015.

As former director general of police K Ramanujam, retired judge R Dakshinamurthy and advocate G Murugan took oath on Sunday as information commissioners for Tamil Nadu, activists cried foul over the appointments.

The information commission now has seven commissioners including its chief. RTI activists have censured the authorities for the secrecy shrouding the appointments, and said installing retired officials with a track record of being friendly to the government as information commissioners could pose a threat to transparency and fairness in the commission's functioning.

"The government awards officials who favoured it by making them heads of panels as post-retirement rewards," RTI activist Siva Elango said. "When a government surrounds itself by officials it considers friendly, chances are it is looking to shield itself."

Elango said he and other activists will launch protests against the appointments.

Shailesh Gandhi, a noted RTI activist from Mumbai, appointed to the Central Information Commission in 2008, said the state government should have considered their contributions to the RTI Act before appointing them.

"This is ridiculous," he said. "An officer who works in the intelligence wing is secretive because the job requires that. How can such a person head the information commission where transparency is of paramount importance?"

Venkatesh Nayak of NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said the government should have appointed established and unimpeachable RTI crusaders as information commissioners so that the panel would be accountable.

The post of state chief information commissioner has been vacant since April, when K S Sripathi retired. More than 20,000 appeals are pending before the commission.

According to the RTI Act, a panel comprising the chief minister, the leader of opposition and a cabinet minister should appoint the chief information commissioner.

DMDK members confirmed that the party received correspondence from the government on vacancies in the commission and sought the party's views.

"But we received the letter on the day we were to respond so we could not reply," a party leader said.