Appoint non-bureaucrats as information commissioners also—SC

New Delhi, Feb. 15 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Friday said that the information commissioners, both at the Centre and in the States, under the Right to Information Act should also be appointed from other streams of the society and not limited just to serving or retired bureaucrats.

A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and S. Abdul Nazeer said the entire appointment process must be transparent with terms and conditions of appointment specified in the advertisement inviting applications.

Justice Sikri said the Selection Committee on Information Commissioners should have a criteria for the short-listing of the candidates.

Pointing to its impact on good governance, the court directed that all the vacancies both at the level of Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions be filled within six months.

It further said that where the process of appointment was already on, it should be completed in a month or two.

To stem any future vacancies, the court said that the process of filling the future vacancies should commence two months before an incumbent Information Commissioner was to retire.

The court verdict came on a PIL by an information activist, Anjili Bharadwaj.