Greater Kashmir: Srinagar: Wednesday, December 27, 2017.
To bring
about transparency in the system and make appellate authorities accountable,
the State Information Commission (SIC) has asked the First Appellate
Authorities (FAA) to provide a “speaking and reasoned order” to the commission
as well as to the complainant before disposing of an appeal.
“It is a
settled proposition of law that even in administrative matters reasons should
be recorded as it is incumbent upon the authorities to pass a speaking and
reasoned order,” said the state information commissioner, Mohammad Ashraf Mir.
Every state
action should be informed by reasons and it follows that an act uninformed by
reason is arbitrary. The rule of law contemplates governance by laws and not by
humour, whims or caprices of the men to whom the governance is entrusted for
the time being,” the SIC said in an order.
The FAA is a
quasi-judicial body. When an appellant comes with his appeal before it, the authority
has to examine and consider the averments made in the memo of appeal, the
grounds taken by the appellant for filing such an appeal, the facts and
circumstances leading to the filing of such appeal, and the arguments made and
plea taken during the hearing of the appeal.
The authority
then has to record its finding on each ground taken or the plea raised while
disposing of the appeal.
“Reason is
the heartbeat of every conclusion. It introduces clarity in an order, be it
judicial, quasi-judicial or even administrative,” said Ashraf.
“The
commission being the second appellate authority has the advantage of examining
and knowing the reasons that prevailed with the FAA in making the impugned
order,” he added.
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