The decision to drop Bassi was taken amidst mounting pressure from Congress along with other opposition parties and civil society activists citing alleged inaction of Delhi Police as violent mob had beaten up journalists, teachers and students inside Patiala House Court complex during the hearing of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar's case, official sources said.
Meeting the six-week deadline set by Delhi High Court to fill vacancies in the transparency watchdog, the panel met here this morning in which various names were discussed.
Sources said Kharge was against Bassi's candidature, a stand made already clear by some of his party leaders.
A 1977-batch IPS officer, Bassi, who is due to retire this month-end, was one of the applicants for the post of Information Commissioner. His name was shortlisted last November by a search committee headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha.
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Sources said the selection panel has sent its recommendation to President Pranab Mukherjee for his assent so that final orders for their appointments can be issued.
Besides Bassi, former Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Shyamal K Sarkar, Anup K Pujari, the then Secretary of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and former Information and Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka were also shortlisted then.
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On his part, Bassi said said that he is not at all
"I am happy and have no issues with that (the decision). I am not dissapointed," the police chief said, adding that it won't be a legitimate thing to comment further on the decision made by a selection panel led by the Prime Minister.
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Opposing Bassi's appointment for the post, Kharge is learnt to have cited a number of reasons including his "track record".
Sources said that Delhi Congress Chief Ajay Maken had earlier communicated to Kharge the party's reservations against Bassi's name, faulting him on many counts including "failure to control law and order in Delhi" and also took umbrage to his role in the JNU row.
The party said that Bassi in his tenure as Delhi Police Commissioner acted "completely contrary" to purpose of the RTI Act that envisages a confidence-building institution for the people of India.
The party raised questions over Delhi police's handling of incidents that took place in the national Capital over the past week, where students, faculty and journalists were attacked within and outside the court premises and "despite clear evidence of the offenders, the police, acting on instructions of their political masters, remained a mute spectator and later chose to file an FIR against unknown persons".
He also referred to a purported case related to a cooperative housing society against Bassi to drive home the point.
"His candidature for an independent and transparent institution of RTI will be extremely unfit and an appointment to that effect will be a huge setback for the confidence of the people in our democracy," Maken is learnt to have said in his communication to Kharge.