RTI helps them get appointment

Paul John TNN : Ahmedabad: Three youths, after being interviewed for the post of assistant public prosecutors (APP) in Rajkot and Morbi, had to wait unnecessarily for almost one-and-half-year just to get an appointment letter from the legal department. Even after their frequent visits to Gandhinagar and reminder letters, their appointments never came through. It was only when a senior lawyer of the Rajkot sessions court Harshad Pandya sought the names of the officers responsible for the delay under the Right to Information Act that the appointments were made. “With the number of litigations rising in both civil and sessions court, there were not enough prosecutors to fight cases for the government. There were three posts of APP in Rajkot, while there was a vacancy for the same post in Morbi. After conducting interviews, the the legal department just sat on the file for more than a year, which is atrocious,” says Pandya. The legal department had invited applications for APP posts for Rajkot and Morbi in October 2004 for which 49 candidates had applied. After the relevant selection procedure, interviews of 38 candidates were conducted by a panel that included the district magistrate and the district sessions judge on February 2005. Eight candidates were shortlisted. From here on, the administrative delays set in and nothing was heard for the next year. “ I had filed an RTI application in April 2006 and on June 7, 2006. The legal department finally appointed three APPs, while one post is still vacant in Rajkot. I also came to know that one of the candidates who was appointed was not there on the merit list. I have filed an RTI application for this,” Pandya adds. The case had come up for hearing before state ckhief information commissioner R N Das recently where the public information officer of the legal department admitted that the delay was caused due to inaction of the administration.
Publication: Times Of India Ahmedabad; Date:2007 Feb 23; Section:Ahmedabad; Page Number 3