Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 19: Division Bench of the State High Court comprising First Puisine Judge Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice B S Walia today issued notices to the Chief Secretary and Commissioner Secretaries of General Administration and Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Departments in an application seeking directions for initiating process for appointment of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioner in State Information Commission constituted under J&K Right to Information Act, 2009.
Senior AAG Seema Shekhar accepted notices in the open court on behalf of the functionaries of the State Government.
When the PIL came up for hearing, Advocate S S Ahmed appearing for the petitioners, submitted that J&K Government established State Information Commission under J&K RTI Act, 2009 and G R Sufi (Retd Income Tax Commissioner) was appointed as the founder Chief Information Commissioner and besides this two Information Commissioners namely Dr S K Sharma and Nazir Ahmed were also appointed.
He further submitted that Dr S K Sharma completed his term as Information Commissioner in October 2015 whereas Chief Information Commissioner G R Sufi also demitted office on February 29, 2016 and presently the Commission is being run by Information Commissioner Nazir Ahmed.
“It was incumbent upon the State Government to initiate the process of the appointment of the CIC and the Information Commissioner prior to the completion of their terms but till date the said process has not been kick-started with the result the information watch dog of the State Government has been rendered headless and almost defunct”, he further said.
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