SWEARING-IN AT HOME

The following article is a follow-up to this article.

It was strange when the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, appointed his close friends as State Information Commissioners of Haryana. However, it was downright bizarre when he managed to arrange their swearing- in ceremony at his residence. Hooda, contrary to all known protocol, hurriedly organised an event at his residence this Sunday. All the new Information Commissioners were sworn in there by Hooda himself.

The new appointees were likely to be sworn in by Governor Jagannath Pahadia, who retired on July 27. “Ideally, the government should have waited for the new Governor, Kaptan Singh Solanki, to take oath and followed procedure. But for some reasons best known to them, everything was done at an unprecedented pace and the CM administered oath to those selected”, said Pradeep Kansi, Haryana Secretary, Administrative Reforms Department, to Indian Express.

The haste with which these new Commissioners are being appointed is being questioned. The appointees were Amar Singh, a retired Excise and Taxation Department officer and husband of Justice Jaya Chaudhary; Rekha, wife of Hooda’s Political Advisor Professor Virender Singh; and Shiv Raman Gaur, the CM’s retired Additional Principal Secretary who was recently re-employed as his advisor (health).

According to the Indian Express report, appointment of the new Information Commissioners was initiated by the State Government without any request from the CIC. In January, Chief Information Commissioner, Naresh Gulati, was sent a letter by the state Administrative Reforms Department saying, “CM has ordered that necessary action for appointment of State Information Commissioners be taken”.“In compliance”, the Department said, it requested the CIC “to furnish advice whether any number of posts of State Information Commissioners needs to be filled up in the Commission. If yes, the justification for the same may kindly be supplied”.

Naresh Gulati did not make any recommendation or demand for additional Commissioners. Instead, he decided to leave it to the State Government to take a call.

Kansi said the Haryana Chief Secretary had called him the night before to prepare the files for oath-taking. “This was not legal”, he said. “How could oaths be administered to people who were still holding offices of profit?”

It is pretty unclear which constitutional law allows them to hold official ceremonies at home.

Earlier, Haryana had seven Information Commissioners. Now the department has one Chief Information Commissioner and ten Information Commissioners.