The appointment of Suresh Chandra as the Chief Information Commissioner has sparked outrage and activists claimed that the selection process was “arbitrary” as Chandra had not even applied for the post, reported The Hindu.
According to the files made public by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Chandra was not on the list of 280 applicants. However, he was among the 14 people who were short-listed, two of whom had not even applied.
Chandra confirmed to The Hindu that he did not apply for the post. “This is a high-level quasi-judicial body. You will see that many highly qualified candidates do not apply. I also did not apply… I was asked later on, I was approached; but in writing, there was no application,” he reportedly said, adding that “The search committee is not restricted to applicants, but to deserving candidates. Most applicants are top bureaucrats, not trained in a judicial background.”
In an affidavit to the Supreme Court, the DoPT had told the Supreme Court that the search committee would shortlist candidates “out of the applications received”.
Also Read: Activists Slam Modi Govt Over No Transparency in CIC Selection Process
RTI Activist and co-convenor of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, Anjali Bhardwaj told The Hindu, “Shortlisting has been done outside the list of applicants, in violation of procedure laid out by the department in their own affidavit to the Supreme Court.”
Bhardwaj, who is the main petitioner in the main petitioner in the Supreme Court case on vacancies in the Central and state information commissions, will reportedly bring this “arbitrary” selection process to the notice of the court on Tuesday, when the next hearing of the case is scheduled.
She told The Hindu, “We need transparency at every stage, and public scrutiny to prevent such an arbitrary process. What is the point of releasing this information only when the whole process is over?”
Chandra was reportedly Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s private secretary when the latter was serving as the Law Minister in the Vajpayee government. Chandra retired as Law Secretary in November 2018.
He was picked as the CIC by a panel comprising of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jaitley and leader of Congress party in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, reported The Hindu.
Chandra’s past record is dubious, including his appointment as the Law Secretary. Reportedly, in June 2016, 45 people had applied for the position of the Law Secretary, including from serving sessions judges. However, no one from the Law Ministry had applied, as none of them met the criteria. The Hindu reported that the criteria were subsequently changed by the government, allowing Mr. Chandra to apply. He was appointed the Law Secretary on June 14, 2016.
More notably, Chandra’s name was mentioned by CBI DG MK Sinha in his interlocutory application before the Supreme Court in the matter of Alok Verma’s removal. Sinha had alleged that Chandra had called Satish Babu Sana, accused in the Moin Qureshi case and whistleblower in the Rakesh Asthana bribery case, “in order to convey the message of Cabinet Secretary Shri PK Sinha that the Union Government will offer full protection to him.”