HC summons state Food dept secy for delaying selection of four district forum presidents

Though the recommendations for appointment of these candidates were made by the Selection Committee on May 15, 2008, these were hanging fire in the Consumer Affairs Department.

In a startling development, the Department of Consumer Affairs and Food & Supplies Department has conveyed it to the president of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission that the state government cannot make appointments of these candidates, which were recommended by the Statutory Selection Committee.

The Statutory Selection Committee comprised Justice S N Aggarwal (retired) as its chairman, who is also the president of the State Commission; R PS Pawar, secretary of the Food & Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, and Rekha Mittal (Legal Remebrancer) as member.

The secretary has objected to the appointments as there were certain complaints against them in the past. Some of them were also pending in the High Court.

The petitioner brought this development to the notice of the court. The petitioner also produced the copy of the proceedings of the Selection Committee (obtained by him under RTI Act), which revealed that the objections raised by Pawar, Secretary, Food & Supplies, were duly explained to him by the chairman and the other member.

Ultimately, of the 24 candidates, all retired district judges, on the basis of marks allotted to the candidates by the members of the Selection Committee, four persons were recommended on the basis of merit.

Taking a serious note of the stand (now taken by the secretary of the Food department), the court observed that the attitude of the department is dissatisfactory.

“The state government should not interfere in the recommendations made by the Selection Committee, unless there is something very drastic against a particular candidate,” the High Court observed.