Jharkhand Information Commission defunct for three years
More than 16,000 appeal applications are pending for hearing in Jharkhand Information Commission as the statutory body has been lying defunct for around three years since the last information commissioner, Himanshu Shekhar Chaudhary, retired after completing his term on May 8, 2020.
More than 16,000 appeal applications are pending for hearing in Jharkhand Information Commission as the statutory body has been lying defunct for around three years since the last information commissioner, Himanshu Shekhar Chaudhary, retired after completing his term on May 8, 2020.
The then chief information commissioner (CIC), Aditya Swarup, had retired on November 30, 2019, and Chaudhary had been functioning as the acting CIC since then.
The state has a provision of six commissioners, including a CIC. All six posts have been lying vacant since May 8, 2020.
“The power to dispose appeals lies with information commissioners. As of March 30, over 16,000 appeals are pending at the commission. Of them, 8,427 were received after the last information commissioner retired in May 2020. In 7,657 pending appeals, at least one or two hearings were held,” said an official at the commission, pleading anonymity.
“We continue to receive applications. We process them for formating and documentation and keep allotting fresh dates for hearings in the hope that commissioners are appointed,” an official said.
Meanwhile, the matter, along with vacancies in other statutory bodies, has now reached court. The association of advocates has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Jharkhand High Court, seeking directions to the government to fill the vacancies at the earliest.
“Around a dozen statutory and government bodies are headless for the past few years. It not only violates the rights of the people, but also advocates as they appear on behalf of their clients in some of these institutions. The court has directed the government to file its reply before the next date of hearing on April 19,” said Navin Kumar, who appeared for the petitioner in the HC on Tuesday.
Some of the institutions currently without chairman and members and mentioned in the PIL include state information commission, women commission, children commission, state human rights commission and state electricity regulatory commission.
While state chief secretary Sukhdev Singh, who has been made a respondent in the case, could not be reached for comment, a senior government official said it was up to the political executive to take a decision on such appointments. “These are all political postings and in a three-party coalition, the decision making gets delayed for different reasons,” the official said, asking not to be named.
Vinod Pandey, spokesperson of chief minister Hemant Soren’s party JMM, which is leading the three-party ruling coalition, said the government would soon make appointments.
“As far as vacancies in the information commission are concerned, it is the BJP that has to be blamed as they have not named the leader of opposition, who is part of the three-member selection panel, along with the CM and chief justice of the high court. BJP named Babulal Marandi as their legislature party leader, but his matter is pending in the Speaker’s tribunal. We had requested to give the name of another representative, which they did not. But still, we are working a way out. As far as appointments in other bodies are concerned, we admit there has been delay, but the process is on and appointments in all bodies would be cleared soon,” said Pandey, who holds the rank of minister of state by the virtue of being a member of the UPA Coordination Committee.
Babulal Marandi, state’s first CM, had merged his party JVM (P) with BJP soon after the 2019 assembly elections and was named BJP legislature party leader.
However, the Speaker did not grant the status of LoP to Marandi as a disqualification petition was initiated against him. The Speaker had reserved his order in the matter on August 30 last year.
Marandi, meanwhile, hit back at the ruling dispensation for the delay. “The proceedings against me show the mala fide intention of this government. Our merger was cleared by the Election Commission. My party has given in writing their choice of legislature party leader. But out of political vendetta, they don’t want to make appointments in the information commission. As far as appointments in other bodies are concerned, the delay is because of internal bickering in the ruing alliance for plum posts,” he said.