Moves by certain high-placed bureaucrats in the state government to earmark the post of chief information commissioner (CIC) exclusively for candidates from the reserved categories has led to protests from a section of the Right to Information (RTI) Act activists in the state.
The activists say the proposal goes contrary to a government regulation (GR) of 1998 prohibiting reservation of single posts for the reserved category.
According to sources in Mantralaya, senior bureaucrats have written to the department of law and justice for legal opinion on reserving the post. It has been lying vacant since the retirement of CIC, Vilas Patil.
At present, the state information commissioner (SIC), Pune bench, Vijay Kuvalekar, is holding additional charge.
RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar, in a letter to the governor, chief minister and chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad, has strongly protested against the move, calling it illegal and contrary to the spirit of the Constitution. He has criticised the government’s failure to fill up the post of the CIC.
Former judge of the Bombay high court, Narendra Chapalgaonkar, when asked about the decision to reserve a single post, stated it was not legally and ethically correct to do so.
“Reservation is an exception to the general rule and can be applied when there are multiple posts available. But reserving a single post is not legally right,” he said.
