The State Information Commission and Women’s Commission continue to be headless for the past one year.
The Governor administration last year amended the right toinformation Act-2009 and paved way for the appointment of its head and membersduring the governor’s or president’s rule. Similarly, a new legislation wasframed and called as State commission for women and child rights Act. As perthe Act the commission will consist of five members including the chairpersonwho will be nominated by the government from amongst the eminent persons whohave done outstanding work for protection of women and children.
But despite amendments in the Acts, the commissions continueto function without heads, causing anxiety among the people.
Days after the collapse of the PDP-BJP coalition governmentin June last year, heads of the Commission for Women and State InformationCommission stepped down upholding established conventions.
While Nayeema Mehjoor stepped down from the women commissionas a result of the demise of the state government, chief of the InformationCommission, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, who was not a political appointee, resignedon June 29 before being appointed advisor to the Governor.
A year has passed but the Governor’s administration has notfound replacement for the two important posts yet, leaving the statutoryinstitutions without any commissioners.
The women and child rights commission has powers toinvestigate, examine and review all matters relating to the safeguards providedfor women and children rights under the constitution and any laws for the timebeing in force for their protection and recommend measures for their effectiveimplementation.
The commission, as per the Act, shall have power to inquireinto the complaints and take suo-moto notice of matters relating to deprivationand violation of women and child rights, non-implementation of laws enacted toprovide protection of women and children and also achieve the objective ofequality and development.
In absence of a chairperson the working of the commissionhas come to a standstill.
Similarly, the State Information Commission has beenfunctioning with just one commissioner in place of three.
As per the amended RTI Act, “Chief Information Commissioner(CIC) and Information Commissioners shall be appointed by the governor on therecommendations of a selection committee comprising his advisors (one of whomshall be nominated as chairperson of the committee) and the chief secretary(member secretary).”
The amendments made in the Act “are applicable only when thestate is under the governor’s or the president’s rule.”