Committee for appointing CIC has no minutes of meeting

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) Even as the post of chief information commissioner lies vacant for seven months now, information provided by government shows the search committee looking for a new chief has met only twice, and there is no record of the meeting.

As per information provided by ministry of personnel in reply to an RTI application, the search committee met on January 16, and February 6 this year.

However, the ministry said the minutes of the meeting were not taken down, and hence there is no detail of what happened in the meetings.

"Not keeping minutes of the meeting means no one will know what is happening inside. Why is there such long delay in appointing a chief information commissioner," right to information activist Aruna Roy said on Monday.

The last chief information commissioner Rajiv Mathur retired in August 2014, and the post is lying vacant since then.

Activists from National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) said they will go for an agitation after April 20, when parliament meets after the break.

"For seven months the office of chief information commissioner is lying vacant. We have no information of what is happening in the search committee. We were told minutes of meeting were not recorded... there have been orders including that from the Supreme Court in context of coal scam that minutes of meeting should be recorded," NCPRI member Anjali Bharadwaj said.

"If government appoints a CIC before April 20, its well and good, other wise we will go on a protest," she said.

The activists said absence of a chief has reduced the powers of the central information commission and the number of pending cases is going up.

NCPRI member Nikhil Dey said: "Leaving the post vacant is passing the message that this body cannot take decisions".

The activists also slammed government for not appointing a Lokpal so far, and not implementing the whistle blowers protection act.

Former chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said that government must not delay the appointment, as the commission and other statutory bodies aide government in better implementation of their own law.

"The BJP government had promised more transparency. But it will all be useless if the backbone of bringing transparency, the right to information is not respected," he said.

Roy, however, questioned if the delay was deliberate, as government did not want to be questioned.

"It is an administrative pattern... also the question of not having independent commissions. When you want to control all decisions and you don't want to be questioned, you will have no method of accountability," she said.