Lucknow, Aug 4 (IANS) M.A. Khan, Uttar Pradesh's former chief
information commissioner (CIC) who was suspended last month on several
charges of misconduct, says he is being victimised by the Mayawati
government because he had given a pro-Samajwadi Party ruling as a high
court judge three years ago.
Suspended by Governor T.V. Rajeswar July 9, Khan is the first chief
information commissioner in the country to have been shown the door.
'My suspension stems from a 2005 ruling in an anti-defection case, in
which I, as a high court judge, recognised the merger of 40 rebel
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators with the Samajwadi Party,' Khan
told IANS in an interview.
The decision had helped the ruling Samajwadi Party to continue in
power, he said.
Mayawati, who was the then chief minister in the BSP-Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) coalition government formed in 2002, had to resign after
13 BSP legislators quit the party and formed a separate political
outfit, the Loktantrik Congress.
Later, the 13 legislators were joined by 27 more BSP rebels and the
outfit merged with the Samajwadi Party.
'Now, I am being victimised by the BSP government for my ruling as it
went against Mayawati. The government is trying all means to implicate
me falsely just to settle personal scores with me,' Khan alleged
After retiring from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court in
November 2005, Khan was appointed as the CIC during the last days of
the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.
The appointment was seen by many as a 'reward' for Justice Khan, who
had issued the ruling in the anti-defection case.
A group of social activists, including Magsaysay award winner Sandeep
Pandey who is associated with the 'Save RTI campaign' have filed
complaints against Khan.
Violating norms for recruiting employees in the commission, financial
irregularities, mistreating complainants and non-cooperation with
colleagues are some of the charges levelled against Khan.
It has been alleged that he made direct recruitments on 40 posts of
class three and four employees without following the reservation
norms. Khan has also been charged with financial irregularities.
'Social activists in one of their complaints have stated that
penalties were imposed by Khan in majority of the cases when the
information was not provided in the stipulated time,' an official
said.
However, the penalty was realised only in a few cases, the official added.
For seeking information under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, one
has to apply to the public information officer (PIO) of the particular
department.
If the information sought is not provided in a period of 30 days, the
applicant has to file an appeal with the PIO, who is to provide the
desired information within 15 days.
However, if the information is still not provided within the desired
time, the applicant can move the State Information Commission, which
in turn can impose a maximum penalty of Rs.25,000 on a particular
department for not providing information within the specific time.
Moreover, Khan has been charged with disposing off cases if the
complainant failed to turn up at the scheduled time. But, on the other
hand, the former CIC gave several chances to government officials to
appear in connection with RTI cases.
Khan has also been accused of making purchases in the commission
against sanction. The former CIC, who has now moved the high court
against his suspension, claims that all charges against him are
baseless.
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Aug 4th, 2008 | By Sindh Today
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