Delhi Police chief B S Bassi, under fire for alleged mishandling JNU row, was today dropped from the list for the post of Information Commissioner in Central Information Commission by a selection panel led by the Prime Minister which has cleared three names.
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.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge at the Prime Minister's South Block office here. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh also attended the meeting as a special invitee.
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.
There is a vacancy of three Information Commissioners against its total strength of 10. The names of candidates for all three vacancies were decided at today's meeting,they said.
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.
Bassi had applied for both the post of Information Commissioner and Central Information Commissioner against the government's order issued in September last. The government had in December appointed former Defence Secretary R K Mathur as head of the transparency panel. Mathur has tenure as CIC till he attains the age of 65 on November 25, 2018.
(Reopens Del 21)
On his part, Bassi said said that he is not at all
disappointed over the decision to drop his name from the list of contenders for the post of Information Commissioner in CIC.
"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.
"It (the decision) doesn't affect me," Bassi added.
(Reopens DEL 28)
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.
He had urged Kharge that as a representative of the opposition in the selection committee, the party must express its strong dissent to Bassi's candidature for the post Information Commissioner.
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".
In the letter to Kharge, Maken had also raised questions on the neutrality of Bassi and claimed he was "unfit" for the position.
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.
