Gujarat High Court rules appointment of Information Commissioners as illegal

The appointment of two Information Commissioners to the Gujarat State Information Commission (SIC) was held as illegal by a division bench comprising of Justice Jayant Patel and S H Vora of Gujarat High Court.  The bench was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO ‘Jagte Raho’, through its president Praful Desai alleging that the consultation process was not duly followed by the authorities in the appointment. The said appointments took place in May 2014.The petitioner had sought to declare the appointment of Information Commissioners B G Panchasara and Shridevi Shukla was illegal on the ground that they had no knowledge and experience in the field of right to information. The petition read “Those two persons were neither in the public life nor they have knowledge in the particular field. Those are the requirements for selection on this position……  The selection committee did not discuss this aspect. Shridevi Shukla was a bureaucrat while B G Panchasara was a lecturer in a college at Bharuch.” The petitioner alleged favouritism and requested to quash the appointment.

The bench ruled that the appointment of Information Commissioners B G Panchasara and Shridevi Shukla was illegal.
 

Citation: 

WPPIL/278/2014  Jagte Raho - Branch of Senior Citizen's Service Trust, Vadodara v/s  Chief Minister of Gujarat 

with

WPPIL/143/2014 Jagte Raho Vadodara v/s The Chief Minister of Gujarat