The Goa Government’s moves to fill up the posts of Right to Information Commissioners, vacant for more than a year now, has hit a legal roadblock yet again with the Bombay High Court at Goa issuing notices to the Government over the appointment of one of the candidates for the post of State Information Commissioner (SIC).
The notices come on the basis of a petition filed by Adv Aires Rodrigues, an RTI activist himself, over the fact that the post wasn’t advertised for and neither did Sandesh apply for any of the posts that were advertised for.
“The selection of Sandesh Prabhudesai was done without him even applying for the post of SIC and on a mere recommendation letter from Dr Oscar Rebello (a city doctor) which was surprisingly silent on Sandesh Prabhudesai’s educational qualification,” Aires said in his petition.
The government had advertised only two posts — one Chief Information Commissioner and one State Information Commissioner —whereas the Government went and appointed three persons - one CIC and two SICs.
The respondents have been given a week to respond to the notices. The State information commission has been non functional for over a year, after two appointments made by the State Government hit controversy, after hired candidates had to resign following controversies related to their educational qualification and graft probes against them.