Arun Jaitley's aide Suresh Chandra appointed as Information Commissioner, RTI activists move Supreme Court

The appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner Suresh Chandra has come under clouds after the RTI activists have raised eyebrows asking ‘if he hadn’t applied, how did he received the coveted post.’

The activists have called it an ‘arbitrary process’ and said that he has been a close aide of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and earlier was a Law Secretary in the Union Cabinet. As per the documents released by the Department of Personnel and Training, Chandra was not in the 280 applicants who had applied for the post but when the list of 14 short-listed mebers came, Suresh’s name was present and it raised doubts.

Chandra told The Hindu that “This is a high-level quasi-judicial body, You will see that many highly qualified candidates do not apply. I also did not apply…I was asked later on, I was approached; but in writing, there was no application.”

Chandra had said, “but to deserving candidates. Most applicants are top bureaucrats, not trained in a judicial background.”

Anjali Bhardwaj, who has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court has said, “We need transparency at every stage, and public scrutiny to prevent such an arbitrary process, What is the point of releasing this information only when the whole process is over?”

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