RTI activists ask PMO, government to reveal details about the selection of the Chief Information Commissioner. Threaten to move court if PMO doesn't replyu00a0

Right To Information (RTI) activists spare no one. Not even the Prime Minister.

Raise your voice: Krishna Rao, one of the RTI petitioners

A group of RTI activists has sent a legal notice to the Prime Minister'su00a0 Office (PMO) and the Government of India regarding the appointment of the new chief information commissioner to head the Central Information Commission (CIC), the nodal agency for implementation of the RTI Act.

Activists from across the country have been demanding the appointment of a non-bureaucrat to the post.

In the legal notice, the activists have demanded the provisions and procedures for selecting the CIC chief should be made public. They want records of previous selections too and have also urged the government to put the appointment of the new chief on hold till the guidelines are revealed.

The notice, sent on November 26, by Abdul Rasheed Quereshi, a Supreme Court advocate, says the Section 4 of RTI Act, 2005, casts an obligation upon the public authority to disclose all norms, procedures and records that may facilitate the right to information under this act. "Section 4(1)(b)(iii) mandates that the public authority shall publish within 120 days from the enactment of this Act,- the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability. Section 4(1)(b)(iv) further mandates that the public authority shall publish the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions," the letter states.

The RTI activists say as the PMO, the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension (DoPT) appoint the CIC commissioner, they are duty bound to publish all relevant facts and details of the procedure pertaining to previous selections of CIC heads and the ongoing selection process of the next chief.

Krishna Rao, one of the petitioners from Mumbai, said, "It is the lack of transparency on the part of the government. The RTI Act is an important instrument empowering citizens of India to make public authorities accountable. The office of the CIC is at the helm of this act. It is therefore expedient and of vital importance that the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability for selecting CICs is put up on the website of the organisation."

The activists allege the government is biased in selecting the CIC heads.

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