Times
of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Saturday, 05 December 2015.
Ushering in
transparency in the selection of information commissioners, the state
government will place newspaper advertisements in a couple of days to fill up
the vacancies of information commissioners.
A screening
committee will then select information commissioners based on the applicants'
educational qualification and requisite experience as prescribed by the RTI
Act, 2005.
This move follows
a high court order, by Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A M Shaffique, to fill
the vacancies in six weeks.
TOI had
reported on September 16 that four positions-out of six information
commissioners-were vacant.
Around 10,000
RTI appeals and complaints have been pending before the state information
commission.
A Supreme
Court order, too, has prompted the government to usher in transparency.
"The
Supreme Court ruled that appointments of information commissioners should be
done after preparing a panel and more importantly after giving due
notice," M T Thomas of the NCPRI said.
Empanelling
the names proposed for SIC should be at least three times the number of
vacancies existing in the commission and the empanelled names should be placed
before the high powered committee.
"The
selection process should commence at least three months prior to the occurrence
of the vacancy,'' the apex court had said.
With
information commissioner C S Sasikumar set to retire at the end of the year,
only the chief information commissioner, Sibi Mathews, will be left in the
commission.
RTI activist
Abey George, state coordinator of NCPRI said the Central Information Commission
has followed the SC order in its recent appointments and the SIC too is bound
to do it or it will tantamount to contempt of the SC order.
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