Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 8: The Chairperson and the Member of Jammu and Kashmir State Accountability Commission—Justice (Retd) Y P Nargotra and Justice (Retd) H Imtiyaz Hussain are completing their term next month. However, the Government has not initiated the process for the appointment of new incumbents despite being aware of the fact that the same is a time consuming process.
Besides this Commission, the Government has also not shown any seriousness towards J&K’s rights watchdog-State Human Rights Commission, which does not have Chairman or any Member at present.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Justice Nargotra and Justice Hussain, who were appointed as Chairperson and Member respectively of the State Accountability Commission on August 16, 2011, are completing their three years term on August 16, 2014. However, the Government has not initiated any process to appoint new incumbents in this Commission despite being aware of the fact that the same takes time to reach at the logical conclusion.
The Accountability Commission was constituted to eradicate the vice of corruption, favoritism, nepotism or lack of integrity besides to maintain probity, transparency and improving the efficiency in public services.
Elaborating the process required to be followed for filling up of the vacancies in the Accountability Commission, sources said that the Chairperson and Members of the Commission are appointed by the Governor by warrant under his hand and seal. Every such appointment is made after obtaining the recommendations of a Committee comprising Chief Minister as Chairman and Speaker Legislative Assembly, Chief Justice of State High Court, Law Minister and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly as its members.
“Law Department, under whose jurisdiction the Accountability Commission falls, is required to first approach this Committee for fixation of date for meeting but this first step has not been initiated so far”, sources informed, adding “after obtaining the tentative date of meeting from this Committee the Law Department is required to prepare a panel of retired Judges for the consideration of the Committee for the posts of Chairperson and Member(s)”.
As per the J&K State Accountability Commission Act, a person who has been a Judge of the Supreme Court or a Judge of the High Court can be considered for the post of Chairperson of the Commission while as a person who has been Judge of the High Court is eligible for the post of Member of the Commission.
“Notwithstanding its significance, the Accountability Commission always received less importance from the respective Governments”, sources said. Earlier, the Commission remained nonfunctional for over two years following completion of term of the then Members-Justice G L Raina and Justice Muzaffar Jan and thereafter its functioning was marred due to non-availability of adequate staff.
It was only on the directions of the State High Court that Government provided staff to the Commission and even initiated process for providing separate Investigation Wing albeit the same has not reached the logical conclusion till date.
Stating that important Commissions in Jammu and Kashmir never received the required attention of the Government, sources said, “this can be gauged from the status of State Human Rights Commission, which is presently lying defunct only due to this reason”, adding “the two members of this Commission completed their term last month but till date the Government has not initiated the process for filling up the posts”.
The overall strength of the SHRC is five, which include four members and one Chairman. However, the Commission remained without Chairman for a long period due to the indifferent attitude of the Government and presently Commission has ceased to function in the absence of Chairman and any member.
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