Information Commissioners' Appointments by August: TS Govt

Hyderabad: Following continuous rebukes from the Telangana High Court over the failure to fill Constitutional and other key posts, the state government on Wednesday informed the court that the posts of information commissioners (ICs) and chief information commissioner (CIC) to the State Information Commission would be filled by the second week of August.

Advocate General B.S. Prasad, appearing for the state government, apprised the court of steps taken by the government for the appointments, saying that a notification for the post of ICs was issued on July 3, with wide publicity in newspapers, calling for applications.

The Advocate General further submitted that the deadline for applications has been set for August 4, following which the government may take up to a week to scrutinise them and complete the selections.

However, the division bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N. Tukaramji expressed its serious displeasure and concern over the slow pace of steps to appoint ICs and CIC to the TS Information Commission, given that the last IC retired on February 24, while the CIC post has been vacant since August 24, 2020.

Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, addressing the Advocate General, observed: “Suppose, if a person approaches the Information Commission and seeks specific information and if nobody is in the commission, what will happen… this situation should not have been allowed to happen… it is not a very happy situation… it is a very said state of affairs…”.  

Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan further reminisced about a Tuesday incident, wherein no government counsel was present to apprise the court of the appointment of chairman and members to the Human Rights Commission.

Recording the contention of the Advocate General of Telangana in its order, the division bench adjourned the PIL on the vacancies to August 23.