New Delhi: Former UP Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta was removed from list of candidates shortlisted for the post of Chief Information Commissioner by the Search Committee after receiving vigilance and intelligence reports.
File notings received under the Right to Information Act show Government had only considered retired and serving bureaucrats to fill the positions at the Central Information Commission even as it was envisaged to have people from varied background to join the transparency panel.
The notings show that search committee under Chairmanship of the then Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth had shortlisted 1974 batch UP Cadre IAS Atul Kumar Gupta, former LIC Chairman Dinesh Kumar Mehrotra and Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma also 1974-batch IAS officer from UP cadre.
It was decided by the search committee to call for reports of vigilance, Intelligence Bureau and CBI on April 27, 2015.
After receiving the reports, the Committee met on May 14, 2015 and removed the name of Gupta from the list of candidates shortlisted for the post and added the name of former Coal Secretary Sanjay Kumar Shrivastava, 1978-batch IAS officer from Assam Meghalaya cadre to be placed before the selection committee, the notings received by Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra show.
The reports have not been revealed in the file notings citing section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act which exempts from disclosure records related to deliberations of the Cabinet. However, the law states that these records should be disclosed once decision has been taken.
The Selection Committee was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley which gave the nod for the name of Vijai Sharma as the new Chief Information Commissioner.
The response shows 203 people have applied for the post of Chief Information Commissioner while 553 people applied for the post of Information Commissioner but only those having over 30 years of experience were considered.
"In other words, the above condition of only short-listing names of those with 30 years and above professional experience means the person must be at least around 60 years and above age. That creates opportunity to give retired Babus a resettlement gift," Batra said.
He said "this processes of rejecting the names of applicants on this ground has clearly violated the basic right of a citizen of 'equality to status and of opportunity' granted by the constitution of India.
