SUED UP! INFO COMMISSIONER H N KRISHNA CHARGE SHEETED BY CID MORALLY REQUIRED TO RESIGN, CONTINUES ON POST!

                                 

Firoz.T.Totanawala

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

1st September 2011 issue-

                                           SUED UP!                                         

INFO COMMISSIONER H N KRISHNA CHARGE SHEETED BY CID

      MORALLY REQUIRED TO RESIGN, CONTINUES ON POST!

H. N. Krishna, the former KPSC Chairman and presently one of the Information Commissioners, is facing a criminal case filed by the CID for his acts in KPSC scam. Once the charge sheet is filed by the CID against him, H. N. Krishna will lose any right over the post he holds now. It was morally expected for him to have resigned from the post the moment the CID filed the charge sheet. But he is thick-skinned and continues in the post. It is therefore time for the Governor to intervene and dismiss him from the Information Commission.

Fundamentally, the very basis of appointment as Information Commissioner is questionable. H. N. Krishna, after his retirement in 2006 as chairman of KPSC, made efforts to become the Information Commissioner. But there was a hitch. As per the constitution, a person who has worked as PSC member or chairman can not hold any public office except in UPSC. As such H. N. Krishna was not eligible to become Information Commissioner. Despite his ineligibility, H. D. Kumaraswamy, the then Chief Minister nominated him to the State Information Commissioner.

Whatsoever, the CID has caught him up for his involvement in KPSC scams. Now, once the CID files a charge sheet against him for criminal offences; one does not need the legal experts to say that H. N. Krishna should resign from the Information Commissioner post. But as H. N. Krishna is a thick skinned man and he is unlikely to oblige by resigning on his own. He is not prepared to let go of the post lest he may lose the fat salary and perks and the control over bureaucracy.

Further, it is also not easy to remove H. N. Krishna from the Information Commissioner’s post as he enjoys certain special protections. It is also not same as the High Command of BJP forcing Yedurappa to resign as the Chief Minister after the Lokayukta named him in Mining scam. In the case of Information Commissioner, only the Governor can suspend him and bar him from attending the office and again that is the most the Governor can do. H. N. Krishna knows this and therefore he is not prepared to resign.

On the contrary, there are many ways the Government can make him to resign on his own. The basic need is that the Government should show the will to take action against H. N. Krishna. It is another matter that his appointment as Information Commissioner was challenged in the High Court because of the constitutional bar on his appointment, but somehow, H. N. Krishna got away with it. But even now, the Government can invoke the constitutional provision barring anybody who worked as PSC Member or Chairman from holding any office of profit after retirement from the PSC.

Arguably, H. N. Krishna’s continuance as the Information Commissioner will be embarrassing to both the Government and the Government officials. How one can imagine a charge sheeted person presiding over the appeal cases? It is sheer non sense! It is time the Government wakes up and removes him from the post even if it meant making a reference to the Supreme Court.