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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Only in India: Judge on info panel -Himanshi Dhawan

Only in India: Judge on info panel -Himanshi Dhawan

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published Published on Sep 18, 2012   modified Modified on Sep 18, 2012
-The Times of India

India is likely to be on an unchartered territory when it implements the Supreme Court order mandating the presence of a judicial officer and an expert to hear appeals in information commissions across the country. According to an independent survey on information commissions across the world there was no precedent of retired or serving judges as members of panels hearing cases related to freedom of information.

The rapid survey — conducted by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) — says that none of the ''35 national and provincial jurisdictions had retired or serving judges as members'.' Among the countries that were surveyed included Australia, Canada, Germany and the UK.

CHRI in its survey said that the SC had cited international practices regarding the composition of judicial tribunals and the qualifications for appointment of their members from countries such as the UK, Germany, the US, Australia and New South Wales (a province in Australia).

Arguing that this could be an unfair comparison CHRI's Venkatesh Nayak said in most of the international jurisdictions, the Commission or the Tribunals have been treated to be part of the court attached system of administration of justice.

However, Indian information commissions and information commissioners must be compared with their foreign counterparts — other information commissions (commissioners) established for the purpose of administering the access to information laws and for adjudicating information access disputes. ''They cannot be compared with other judicial tribunals established in other countries for other kinds of adjudication. We could not find any serving or retired judge appointed as information commissioner in any of the 35 jurisdictions that we surveyed,'' Nayak said.

While the UK information commissioner is a history graduate and worked in Advertising Standards Authority and BBC, only one deputy information commissioners has a law degree and has practiced as a government lawyer. The other served as chairman of the data protection supervisory body of EUROPOL.

In Australia, the information commissioner has served as Commonwealth ombudsman, while the country's freedom of information commissioner has a doctoral degree in artificial intelligence and law. The privacy commissioner has a bachelor's degree in arts and held senior management positions in government agencies.

Both the Canadian information commissioner and its assistant information commissioner have a degree in law and served as lawyers in various capacities but not as a judge.

The European ombudsman, according to the survey, has a doctoral degree in political science. Germany's office of the federal commissioner of data protection and freedom of information is headed by a former government official, who has a degree in economics. 

The Times of India, 18 September, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Only-in-India-Judge-on-info-panel/articleshow/16441813.cms


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