Early this year a high-level selection committee headed byAdvisor to J&K Governor Mr K Vijay Kumar recommended the name of AdditionalDirector General of Police (ADG law & order) Mr Muneer Ahmad Khan for thepost of Information Commissioner in the State Information Commission(SIC). A formal notification was issuedby General Administration Department (GAD) on behalf of Governor Satya PalMalik on 2.03.2019. It was understood that Mr Khan would assume the office of InformationCommissioner as soon as notification was issued, but he preferred to continueas ADGP (Law & Order). It was then assumed he would take up SIC’sassignment from July 1st 2019 in view of his retirement on June 30th 2019. Butthe Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended his service by another one yearvide an order Dated 30th June 2019.
Will State Information Commission again be made to wait for1 more year till Mr Muneer Khan completes one year extension of his service?
As a campaigner forRight to Information law there are some issues which Government needs toclarify vis a vis appointment of two Information Commissioners. The absence oftwo Commissioners in SIC which includes its Chief is making this institutionredundant. Citizens of the state are suffering a lot because all the workloadin State Information Commission is being thrust on a single InformationCommissioner.
Constitution of SIC
J&K State Information Commission (JKSIC) is constitutedunder section 12 of JK RTI Act 2009. The Commission became headless soon afterMr Khurshid Ahmad Ganai resigned from the post of Chief InformationCommissioner (CIC) on June 29th 2018. At present one single InformationCommissioner (IC) Mr Mohammad Ashraf Mir looks after the affairs of SIC. Underthe provisions of section 12 sub section (2) , the J&K State InformationCommission (SIC) shall consist of State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC)and two Information Commissioners (ICs). When Dr (Prof) S K Sharma (Former Jammu UniversityProfessor) completed his term as StateInformation Commissioner in October 2015, Government failed to fill that gap.After Prof Sharma’s retirement, ChiefInformation Commissioner (CIC) Mr G R Sufi completed his 5 year term asCIC in March 2016. Again Governmentfailed to appoint a new CIC for many months. Finally the SIC became completelydefunct when Information Commissioner Mr Nazir Ahmad completed his tenure inSIC in November 2016. After 4 months PDP-BJP Government appointed Mr Khurshid Ahmad Ganai a retired IAS officeras State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on 27th February 2017. After his appointmentGovernment appointed another Commissioner Mr Mohammad Ashraf Mir (Former LawSecretary) on October 15th 2017. Third Commissioner’s position was never filled.It continues to be vacant from October 2015 when Prof Sharma completed his termas Information Commission. .
Appointment of CIC and ICs ?
As per section 12, sub section 3 of J&K RTI Act 2009State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and State Information Commissioners(ICs) shall be appointed by Governor on the recommendation of the committeeconsisting of
a) ChiefMinister who shall be the Chairperson of the committee
b) Theleader of opposition in legislative assembly and
c) A cabinetMinister nominated by Chief Minister.
In case where leader of opposition in legislative assemblyhas not been recognized the leader of single largest group in the opposition inlegislative assembly shall be deemed to be leader of opposition.
As J&K State was put under Governor rule with effectfrom June 19th 2018 the powers vested with CM were exercised by the Governorfor 6 months until state was put under President’s Rule. Further to addresstechnicalities in appointing members of State Information Commission (SIC) ,the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by Governor Mr Satya Pal Malik onNovember 22nd 2018 , approved J&K RTI Act (Amendment) Bill 2018. Theamendment now facilitates appointment of State Chief Information Commissioner(CIC) and State Information Commissioners (IC) during the Governor’s orPresidents Rule as well.
Conclusion
The J&K State Information Commission (SIC) has twovacancies of State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and one InformationCommissioner (IC). In view of the newdevelopment Mr Muneer Khan has been given service extension of 1 year. Will thepost of Information Commissioner remain again remain vacant for next 1 year ?Will Government again wait for Mr Muneer Khan to complete his 1 year extensionterm and then post him as Information Commissioner ? I would suggest Governmentmust find an alternative. We lost 4 precious months after Mr Khan’s appointmentas Information Commissioner as he did not join Information Commission soonafter his appointment order was issued in March 2019. It is the right time toappoint both Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioner. It isan irony that selection of commissioners for a transparency institute is notcarried in a transparent manner? It is nowhere written in RTI law that onlybureaucrats and police officers can be appointed as Commissioners . Why notgive a chance to eminent person from Judiciary , academics , journalism or civil society ? JKRTI Act 2009 has enough scope for the same . I would also suggest that Governmentmust invite open applications for these positions as is done in case ofappointments in Central Information Commission and Information Commissions inother countries.