RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh high court has issued notices to the state government after a petition, seeking grounds of appointing a former journalist and a media manager as Information Commissioners allegedly in “utter disregard of the guidelines”, was filed. The court also served notices to both the Commissioners.
The state government had issued advertisements for the two posts of the state Information Commissioners in January and October last year. Close to 95 persons applied for the position.
However, the petitioner D K Soni, one of the applicants, stated that the guidelines earlier issued by the Supreme Court regarding the selection process and appointment of the Information Commissioner were outright violated by the state government.
The guidelines that emphasize maintaining transparency in the appointment process advocated that the details about the candidates should be initially uploaded on the website, but the authorities in Chhattisgarh complied with it only after the selection processes were over.
“The Search Committee had to make public the criteria for shortlisting the candidates, but that was never done. And most importantly, how the two persons met the mandatory norm on eminence in public life before they were appointed as Information Commissioners. It was also not made public along with the other requisite information,” claimed the petitioner who also appealed the court to prevent both the Commissioners from carrying out their official roles till the petition gets disposed off.
The committee, before carrying out the recommendations to the Governor, should indicate the candidates’ recognition as 'eminence in public life besides their knowledge and experience in the particular field'.
The bench of Justice P Sam Koshy after admitting the petition for hearing served the notices and sought the reply from the state government, the two other respondents.