Appointment of Guj information commissioner challenged in HC

The Gujarat High Court today issued a notice to the state government on a PIL challenging the eligibility of a recently-appointed information commissioner.
A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi issued notice to Information Commissioner D P Thakar and the principal secretaries of General Administration and Legal Departments.
Petitioner Praful Desai challenged Thakar's appointment saying his educational qualification and experience did not meet the criteria under the RTI Act.
Thakar's qualification -- BCom, LLB -- was not commensurate with the post, as the Act says that information commissioner should be a person of eminence, with "wide experience" in terms of educational qualification, Desai claimed.

Thakar joined government service as a clerk and was gradually promoted to deputy secretary before being appointed as an information commissioner, the PIL said.
"The government of Gujarat has so far murdered, through its repeated acts of omission and commission, objectives for which RTI Act 2005 was enacted," the PIL alleged.

In August 2012, the high court asked the government to fill up two vacancies of information commissioners. In February 2015, it set aside two appointments of information commissioner, observing that the persons did not meet the criteria, the PIL pointed out.
Last December, the high court again ordered the government to fill up the two vacancies.

Desai's earlier PIL on the same issue was dismissed by the court as he failed to obtain information about Thakar's educational qualification through RTI.
He filed a fresh plea after obtaining the information through another source.
The PIL also sought to know how the government was proceeding with appointment of the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC). Present CIC, Balwant Sinh, retired on December 6.