"To my knowledge, there is no such rule in the Act which says that the candidates should not be associated with political parties prior to their appointments," Rao said in a letter to Reddy.
Eight persons were appointed as Information Commissioners by the government, after a panel, also including the Chief Minister and Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu, cleared their names.
However, civil society activists raised objections alleging that that the selected persons had political affiliations.
In the wake of the objections, their appointment was put on hold, while the remaining four were appointed.
Hanumantha Rao asserted that the four barred persons belonged to the backward classes and that they should not be denied the opportunity to be appointed to the posts.
