Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 30: Taking serious note of flouting of provisions of the Act whereby it was established to enquire into allegations against public functionaries, Raj Bhawan has dashed a communiqué to the Jammu and Kashmir State Accountability Commission (SAC) seeking details of all the complaints dismissed by it ever since its re-constitution on October 1, 2015.
The Commission was established under Jammu and Kashmir Accountability Commission Act, 2002 and Section 12, which deals with preliminary scrutiny of complaints explicitly, states: “If the Accountability Commission is satisfied, after considering a complaint and after making such verification as it deems appropriate that the complaint is manifestly false and vexatious, the Commission shall dismiss the complaint after recording its reasons and communicate the same to the complainant as well as to the competent authority”.
As per the definitions contained in Act, the competent authority with regard to the public functionaries is the Governor of the State, who is also the appointing authority of Chairperson and Members of the Accountability Commission and issues orders in this regard under his hand and seal.
EXCELSIOR on March 26, 2017 had exclusively reported that Section 12 of the J&K Accountability Commission Act, 2002 was being observed in breech by the Commission as it has dismissed several complaints against the public functionaries since October 1, 2015 but details of none of them were communicated to the competent authority (Governor).
The revelations by EXCELSIOR were taken seriously by the Governor N N Vohra and on his instructions Raj Bhawan recently sent a communication to the Accountability Commission and stressed that details of all the complaints dismissed by the Commission shall be placed before the Governor for his information strictly as per the provisions of the Act, sources in Raj Bhawan said, adding even the report of the EXCELSIOR has been appended with the communiqué.
However, the Commission has yet not responded to the communication of the Raj Bhawan because of divergent views of Chairperson and Members and details about the dismissed cases would be furnished to the Governor only after opening of Chairperson Justice B A Khan’s office at Srinagar early next month.
According to the Raj Bhawan sources, the Accountability Commission should not hesitate in furnishing all the details to the Governor if it wants to ensure transparency in its functioning.
“If the Commission can furnish details of its cases to the Government for sharing with the Legislature as was done during the Budget Session concluded in the month of February this year then what is the hitch in keeping Governor-competent as well as appointing authority update about complaints dismissed by the Commission”, they added.
According to the legal experts, Governor is the head of the State and if the Chief Minister and almost all the vital institutions are regularly updating the constitutional authority on various issues what is the problem for the Accountability Commission in ensuring compliance to Section 12 of the Act.
“Non-furnishing of details would amount to belittling the authority of the Governor and creating obstacles in ensuring transparency in the functioning of the Commission”, they said.
“Moreover, non-adherence to the provisions of Act by none else than former Chief Justice and Judges of the High Court would send a wrong signal to other commissions and set a wrong precedence”, legal experts further said.
As already reported by EXCELSIOR the Accountability Commission has dismissed complaints against the then Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, the then Deputy Chief Minister and Chairman of the Khadi Village Industries Board and former Minister and sitting Legislator but information of these cases has not been furnished to the Governor till date.
In the recent past, a final decision was taken by the Commission in a complaint involving a former Minister and sitting legislator but the details of the same were neither made public nor shared with Governor although the exonerated legislator is beating the drums of being given clean chit by the State Accountability Commission.
It is learnt that complaint against this legislator was dismissed by the Accountability Commission by majority decision with one member putting dissenting note as such it was imperative to keep the Governor informed about the case.
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