Economic
Times: New Delhi: Monday, January 21, 2019.
After
failing to get the controversial RTI Amendment Bill passed through Parliament
last year, the government had even prepared an ordinance to implement the same
and submitted it to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for approval. But the PMO
had returned the file.
This
has been disclosed in the RTI notings made public by the government now regarding
the process by which it recently chose a Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)
and four Information Commissioners (ICs) in the Central Information Commission.
The proposed law was criticised by activists and the Opposition, led by Rahul
Gandhi, as an attempt by the government to stifle the RTI Act.
The
file notings reveal that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) also
asked the PMO last August to “expedite” the process of these appointments after
RTI activists had gone to the Supreme Court saying that the government was
making the RTI Act, 2005, dysfunctional by not appointing ICs. The notings
disclose that while Sudhir Bhargava was the choice for the CIC’s post, four
other officers short-listed by a search committee for the same were former secretary
(expenditure) RP Watal, Gujarat’s former additional chief secretary SK Nanda
and former union secretaries Alok Rawat and Madhav Lal. The government has got
280 applications for the IC’s post and 64 for the CIC’s post.
The
government had last year prepared a bill ‘The RTI (Amendment) Bill, 2018’ and
served a notice of intention of introduction to move the Bill in the Rajya
Sabha on April 5 last year but the bill could not be taken up for consideration
as the House got adjourned sine die the next day.
“Keeping
in view, the vacancy position in the Central Information Commission and their
need to fill up on an urgent basis, the RTI (Amendment Ordinance, 2018) was
drafted in consultation with the Department of Legal Affairs and the
Legislative Department and a draft note for the Cabinet on amendment of the RTI
Act by promulgating an Ordinance by the President was referred to the Prime Minister’s
Office for approval of the PM as Minister-in-charge of this Department. The
PMO, vide its ID dated May 17, has returned the proposal along with the file,”
states a DoPT note reviewed by ET.
After
the ordinance option was not approved by the PMO, the DoPT put forward options
before the PMO on whether to await the proposed amendment before making any new
appointments or start the process of filling up the four vacancies. Meanwhile,
RTI activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Comm Lokesh Batra (retd) approached the SC on
the issue of vacancies.
“The
writ petition has been filed highlighting how the Government of India and various
state governments are making the RTI Act, 2005, dysfunctional by not appointing Information Commissioners
in the Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions across
the country. In view of the above, it is requested to kindly expedite the
approval to enable the Department to file an affidavit in the writ petition,” states
a DoPT note sent to the PMO on August 8. The PMO promptly approved the setting
up of a search committee for short-listing on August 13. Through the bill, the
government wants to change the terms whereby a CIC and IC are equated to the
Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioner respectively who in turn
are equated to Supreme Court judges in terms of conditions of service.
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