Ahead of the Assembly elections, a fresh controversy has rocked Haryana after Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda administered the oath of office to new members of State Information Commission and the Commissioners of the Right to Service Commission barely an hour after the new Governor took charge on Sunday.
The State Government officials and the Opposition have alleged that rules and procedures were not followed in the hurry to get favorites appointed to the chosen positions. As polls are scheduled to be held in October this year, Opposition also questioned the timing of the appointments saying it was unethical.
However, Haryana Chief Secretary SC Choudhary maintained that there was no illegality in making the appointments and in administering the oath to them. Soon after Kaptan Singh Solanki took oath as the new Governor of Haryana, the Chief Minister went ahead and administered the oath of office to two as Commissioners of the SIC and three others as the Right to Service Commission. In the past, the Information Commissioners were administered the oath by the Governor.
The Opposition parties including INlD and BJP attacked the Hooda Government for showing undue haste in making the appointments and pointed out that even Haryana’s Secretary, Administrative Reforms, Pradeep Kasni, has red-flagged the appointments on the grounds that rules had allegedly not been followed.
BJP legislature Party leader and Ambala MlA Anil Vij said, “The Hooda Government, which has been going out of its way to re-employ its favourites, showed tremendous haste. The Chief Minister invited to his home those who had to take oath and administered the oath on a holiday. He did not even wait for the new Governor's nod.”
He said an IAS officer had red-flagged the appointments. Therefore, this action of the Government is illegal and unconstitutional. Main Opposition INlD, too, slammed the Government over making the appointments. “We are meeting the new Governor and will apprise him that the Congress Government, whose term is nearing its end, is in a tearing hurry to appoint its favourites at key constitutional posts by not following laid down rules thus violating constitutional and democratic norms,” INlD’s State unit chief, Ashok Arora said.
He said the haste in making the appointments to these statutory posts was evident from the fact that the proposal for making the appointments was sent to the then Governor, Jagannath Pahadia, on July 23 seeking an authorisation from him so that the CM could administer the oath to the new members. Names of the new appointees were cleared by Pahadia on July 25, on the last day of his tenure.