MP High Court directs to include Mr. Iqbal Ahmed as respondent
4 Oct, 2012Hearing a writ petition challenging the appointment of Mr. Iqbal Ahmed as the Chief Information Commissioner of the Madhya Pradesh State Information Commission (SIC), the Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the state government to include Mr. Iqbal Ahmed as a respondent. Mr. Iqbal Ahmed took oath of office on August 4 while he was selected in the last week of July 2012. The post of chief information commissioner and nine positions of information commissioners fell vacant in April 2012.
The former Director General of Police Arun Gurtoo and RTI activist Ajay Dubey had challenged the appointment of Mr. Ahmed alleging irregularities in the appointments of CIC. Reliance was placed on the judgment in case of Namit Sharma, where the Apex Court ruled on September 13, 2012 that appointments to the posts information commissioners should be done through a transparent process by inviting applications through advertisements. Supreme Court had ruled that the Chief Information Commissioner of the SIC should be a retired judge. It was argued before the HC that no advertisemments inviting applications were given in the newspapers and Mr. Iqbal Ahmed has no judicial background or experience as required under the SC directions.