NEW DELHI, Dec 10: Former Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu Monday wrote to the President to ensure that the new chief information commissioner and information commissioners have independence with regard to the ‘term, status and salary’ as provided by the Right to Information Act.
In his letter to President Ram Nath Kovind, Acharyulu urged that their term, status and salary shall not be “as prescribed by the central government” as contemplated by the present government in the proposed amendment to the RTI Act.
The RTI Act provides for a term of five years or 65 years of age, whichever is earlier, for the chief information commissioner and information commissioners.
The salaries and allowances payable to and other terms and conditions of service of the chief information commissioner shall be the same as that of the chief election commissioner and an information commissioner shall be the same as that of an election commissioner.
The Centre had recently contemplated to alter the service conditions which was strongly objected to by the civil society and former commissioners.
“The Government shall ensure that it will not interfere in the functioning of Central Information Commission and also to insulate the office of Chief Information Commissioner or individual commissioner from direct or indirect pressures or interferences from any of its offices such as PMO or the Ministry of DoPT,” he said.
Acharyulu also urged the president to ensure that the new chief information commissioner, likely to be chosen soon by the Government, was not from the administration field.
Citing section 12 (5) of the RTI Act, he said the Act provides for selecting people of eminence having experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance.
“As the Chief Information Commissioner in all these 13 years was selected from the field of administration only, at least, this time an eminent person from the field other than administration may be selected,” he urged.
Acharyulu, who gave several path-breaking verdicts during his five year tenure in the Central Information Commission (CIC), said with experts from various fields, there will be no scope for bureaucratic majority or domination in its administration, besides accommodating different viewpoints.
If the government selects more number of former bureaucrats for these posts, it will be a breach of the letter and spirit of the transparency law and more particularly that of Section 12(5) of RTI Act, which may not stand the scrutiny by the judiciary, he argued.
The former information commissioner said the Selection Committee should ensure that the new commissioners appointed shall have complete independence with regard to the term, status and salary as provided by the RTI Act.
“Their term, status and salary shall not be ‘as prescribed by the Central Government’ as contemplated by the present Government in the proposed amendment to RTI Act,” he said. (PTI)
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