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| Why not shut down State Accountability Commission? | | Defunct again on Aug 18! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Aug 12: With State Accountability Commission again going headless on August 18, questions are being asked as to why not shut down this commission which even after 11 years of its existence has miserably failed to make an impact.
They are asking why not to close down a commission whose functioning has been marred by State Government's reluctance to appoint members and concerted attempts of bureaucracy to weaken it. None of the recommendations of the accountability commission have made any impact on the Government functioning. Most of these recommendations have been stayed by the High Court.
Cases against IAS, IFS and IPS officers have been handed over to the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) for necessary action while SAC is now left with cases of Ministers and politicians, most of which have been stayed by the High Court. The number of cases being registered in SAC on daily as well as monthly basis have come down with commoners preferring not to file complaints against high profile politicians and political leaders for the fear of being victimised.
To make matters worse, six days from today, Jammu and Kashmir State Accountability Commission would not only become headless but return to the original state in which it was before the State Government reluctantly moved ahead in August 2011 to appoint two members to this extremely weak institution.
The two members which included Chairperson Justice (Retd.) Y.P Nargotra and lone member Justice (Retd.) Justice, Hakim Imtiyaz Hussain are retiring on August 18, 2014 after having served the institution for the last three years. Since the State Government is yet to start exercise for appointing new members, sources said that the commission would again become defunct.
They added that Government should have started the exercise of appointing new members to the commission atleast three months ago but non-seriousness coupled with coalition compulsion of accommodating names recommended by NC's coalition partner Congress has resulted in State Government not even fixing meeting of the committee which has to meet for recommending names to Governor for appointment.
According to section 4 of the Jammu and Kashmir Accountability Commission Act-2002, Chairperson alongwith two members are appointed by the Governor after obtaining recommendations of a five member committee consisting of Chief Minister as Chairman and four members which include Speaker of Legislative Assembly, Chief Justice of High Court, Law Minister and Leader of the Opposition. What makes the task of Government difficult is the fact that SAC Act does not allow granting extension to either Chairperson or the lone member of the commission.
State Government has habitually preferred granting extensions to officials over making fresh appointments or giving opportunity to new faces to run various important Government institutions and independent commissions. But act bars State Government from extending term of the members once appointed to the commission. Since the exercise has not been started and neither is the possibility of Government hurriedly convening meeting of the committee to appoint new members, commission is all set to go defunct once again.
And if the past history is any indication, it would now be the new Government which would at some point of time in future take a decision to make the commission functional once again after it goes defunct on August 18. Digging into the past, Early Times got to know from highly reliable sources that it was Congress state president Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz whose continuous pressure forced National Conference (NC)-led Government to appoint members to the commission.
It was further found out during the course of investigation that NC-led Government had declined to consider names of several High Court judges who are known men of integrity merely on the grounds that there was suspicion of them having family or personnel relationships with patron of PDP Mufti Mohammad Sayeed or some of his close friends. It was revealed during the course of inquiry that Congress came up with names of the two judges who are now retiring on August 18 after the NC-led Government outrightly refused to consider name of a judge in whose favour the then Chief Justice had spoken at length.
Sources disclosed that not only was the reservation of the Government responsible for delay but reluctance of various High Court Judges in taking over a much weakened institution was another reason for prolonged delay in appointing members to this high profile institution. They added that judges wanted to head an institution where their recommendations would not be taken for granted and where their judgements are not taken non-seriously by the State Government.
State Government amended the SAC act, removing officers from being tried by the commission and kept the commission solely for politicians, Ministers and Chief Minister. Another amendment was done to ensure that anonymous complaints are not made to the commission. This weakened the accountability commission further. Being merely a recommendatory body, these amendments reduced the effectiveness and seriousness of the commission. |
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