Goa cancels appointment of two information commissioners

The Goa government Wednesday cancelled the appointment of two state information commissioners (SIC) after the process was challenged in a court.

Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters that the appointment of a former defence ministry official Stanley Coutinho and journalist Sandesh Prabhudesai had been scrapped.

"We have cancelled the appointments," Parrikar said.

The appointments to the post of state information commissioner had been challenged in the high court by activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues, who claimed that rules were violated to favour Prabhudesai.

The high court Tuesday issued notice to the state government as well as Prabhudesai seeking their response within seven days.

"The selection of Prabhudesai was done without his applying for the post and on a mere recommendation letter from Oscar Rebello, a city doctor, which was surprisingly silent on Prabhudesai's educational qualification," said the petition.

The petitioner claimed that while the advertisement seeking applicants announced only two posts, one of chief information commissioner and the other for one SIC. In hiring two SICs, the government violated its own recruitment norms.

Parrikar, however, said Wednesday that the appointment of a former Maharashtra bureaucrat Leena Mehendale as the chief information commissioner had been cleared by the cabinet.

The petitioner claimed that the appointment of a chief information commissioner alone was in violation of rules laid down in the Right to Information (RTI) act.

"The rules clearly say that the RTI commission has to be a multi-person body, there cannot be only one person in the commission," Rodrigues said.