Mr Shailesh Gandhi to work till 6th July 2012
2 Jun, 2012The Chief Information Commissioner has issued a clarification to squash the rumours that Mr. Shailesh Gandhi has been stopped from attending to appeals filed under the RTI Act. Mr. Gandhi is due for retirement on 6th July and will continue to hear cases till that day. However, fresh appeals filed at the CIC from 12th May onwards, would be dealt with the reallocated public authority.
Vide a circular dated 11th May, there has been a re-allocation of work which was hitherto looked after by Mr. Shailesh Gandhi, the Information Commissioner. The department of atomic energy, ministry of tourism, ministry of external affairs, ministry of environment & forests, ministry of information & broadcasting and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar have been allocated to Information Commissioner Sushma Singh; municipal corporation of Delhi to Information Commissioner Deepak Sandhu; all banks (expect State Bank of India and its associates) to Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and CIC to Information Commissioner ML Sharma. All the fresh cases filed w.e.f. 12th May, relating to the public authorities of the ministries and department held by Mr Gandhi would be sent to the registry of the allocated IC.
In an e-mail, Mr. Gandhi said, “Generally when commissioners leave the office, many files and papers becomes orphans. To avoid such a situation, I requested the Chief Information Commissioner that fresh inputs should be stopped in my office and I would attempt to ensure that very few files or papers would be left when I retire on 6th July. Hence such a circular was issued.” Mr. Gandhi has been hearing cases of all the public authorities before him and has cleared over 500 appeals in May.