The Orissa High Court has directed the state government to take immediate steps to fill up the vacancies of investigating officers and public prosecutors in the Vigilance Department within three months to speed up the investigation into graft cases.
The Maharashtra SIC is without a Chief Information Commissioner and functioning with only four Commissioners even though more than 1,15,000 appeals/complaints are pending, the petitioner said.
Chief Justice Ramana said a detailed survey by the Supreme Court registry in different parts of the country found that infrastructure in courts is very inadequate and he requested the Centre to strengthen it.
On senior advocate Arvind Datar mentioning the matter of tribunal vacancies before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, CJI sad the Attorney General (AG) K. K. Venugopal has circulated an email saying that vacancies in all tribunals across the country are almost filled.
A better and far easier solution to fill up vacant posts at Joint Secretary level exists. Under the Central Staffing Scheme, every year applications are invited from officers of AIS, officers of State Government and members of the Central Services, to fill up Deputy Secretary and above posts in the Central Government. Posts up to Director level are filled-up mostly by officers of Central Services while the IAS predominates in JS and above level posts. So, the shortage of officers at JS level can be addressed by removing the bias against non-IAS officers
The party also alleged that the TMC ruled state government is only recruiting its party workers to contractual positions in the civic body instead. A CPIM member said that the state government only talks of recruitment during its election campaigns before civic polls but in reality the picture is completely opposite.
Setting a timeline for appointment of judges will help fill vacancies faster.
One of the key demands during the struggle for Telangana was jobs along with water and statehood.
The top court also asked the Centre to explain why the posts in CIC, for which an advertisement was issued in 2016, still remain vacant.
The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has in a notification released on 21 July announced vacancies for 54,953 posts of GD Constable.
