The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday formulated two issues for deciding a public interest litigation filed for the delay in the appointment of information commissioners due to the absence of a leader of opposition in the Assembly.
The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra and Justice Ananda Sen while hearing the PIL framed the issues as to whether the Speaker can be given a direction by the high court and whether the Speaker can keep his decision pending on the appointment of information commissioner and other authorities in absence of a leader of the opposition.
The court was hearing the petition filed by the Advocates Association Jharkhand High Court and one Raj Kumar on the delay in the appointment of information commissioners in the absence of a leader of the opposition.
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Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan informed the court that the Speaker has urged the BJP, the largest party in opposition in the Assembly to give a name of their leader.
The BJP had mooted the name of Babulal Marandi which has not been accepted by the Speaker as Marandi is facing anti-defection charges and hence at this stage cannot be considered to be a member of the BJP, the advocate general said.
Assembly secretary Syed Jawed Haider appeared before the high court and explained that the Speaker has concluded the hearing of anti-defection charges against Marandi and the verdict is expected soon.
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The case will be heard after a week.
The bench was informed that besides the information commissioners, several other commissions and tribunals are lying vacant for lack of appointment of a chairperson. The officers of the State Human Rights Commission, Lokayukt and other commissions are lying vacant for a long time.
The information commissioners are to be appointed by a committee which will also have the leader of the opposition in the Assembly as a member.
In the absence of the leader of the opposition at present, the committee is not complete and no recommendation of names of prospective candidates has been done, the court was informed.
Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto in August 2022 had completed the hearing of the case pertaining to defection charges against senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi and reserved the judgment.
-With PTI Input
