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Court notice to U.P. Chief Information Commissioner

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: Acting on a report from Uttar Pradesh Governor T.V. Rajeswar, seeking a probe into specific allegations of misbehaviour against Justice Mohd. Asgar Khan, Chief Information Commissioner, the Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Mr. Khan seeking his response in six weeks.

A Bench, consisting of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices P. Sathasivam and J.M. Panchal, issued the notice after hearing Additional Advocate-General Shail Diwedi, who explained the allegations against Mr. Khan, who was also present in the court.

Prima facie case

On receipt of complaints, the Governor wrote to the Chief Justice stating a prima facie case existed for an inquiry into three charges under Section 17 (1) of the Right to Information Act and asking whether Mr. Khan could be removed on grounds of misbehaviour and incapacity.

Charges

The charges were: Mr. Khan made appointments to 40 posts in Class 3 and 4 categories without following the prescribed procedure, without conducting any examination and in flagrant violation of reservation rules; he made objectionable and derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati, the Cabinet Secretary, the Chief Secretary and the Chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Advisory Council during the hearing of a matter; and he conducted himself autocratically towards other State Information Commissioners.

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