HC reserves order on PIL against appointment of ICs

A division bench comprising Justice Ashutosh Mohunta and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu of the AP High Court, on Tuesday, reserved its orders challenging the appointment of State Information Commissioners. The bench was dealing with a public interest writ petition filed by CJ Karira and G Bhargavi, social activists from the city. The petitioners challenged the appointment of M Ratan, C Madhukar Raj, S Prabhakar Reddy and P Vijay Babu, as State Information Commissioners.

The petitioners complained that the said appointments were in violation of the Section 15 of Right to Information Act and also to the directions of the apex court in Namit Sharma’s case. DV Rao’s counsel for the petitioners said the government had not considered the objections raised by the Leader of Opposition and went ahead with the appointment of the commissioners. He said that at the time of appointment of M Ratan he was in the government service and that Vijay Babu openly declared that he was loyal to the Congress. N Sreedhar Reddy, special counsel to the government defending the said appointments, said that all the grounds raised by the petitioners in the case were already reviewed by the apex court in another case and that a person has right to hold any of the office till the date of his appointment as information commissioner and after the appointment he do not have right to hold any other office. The bench said it would pass the judgment soon.