V K Singh wants House dissolved... I shudder to think, what if he was still Army Chief: CIC

Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Satyananda Mishra on Thursday said he was "intrigued" by former Army chief V K Singh's demand that Parliament should be dissolved, and "shuddered" to think how that end might have been sought to be achieved had Singh still been in office.

"This gentleman (Singh) had represented to the government that his date of birth be reckoned (to have been in) 1951. Had that been accepted by the government, he would be our sitting Army chief (today)," Mishra said at an Idea Exchange programme at The Indian Express.

"Imagine if the sitting Army chief would have this kind of idea, about both the government and the Parliament, under which he would be working, that both need to be dissolved, then I shudder at the thought, that what would have been the way to achieve that end?" Mishra said.

Speaking in Mumbai with Anna Hazare by his side on October 29, Singh had demanded immediate dissolution of Parliament and fresh elections because the government was "not following the constitution".

Mishra disagreed with a recent judgment of the Supreme Court directing that chief information commissioners be chosen from only among retired or serving Supreme Court judges or chief justices of high courts, and that half the information commissioners be from judicial background.

"I don't think there is any particular need to have people of legal and judicial background as information commissioners. I have dealt with a vast variety of cases. I have never felt that any question of law is to be adjudicated or it is needed to be referred to Supreme Court or high court judges," he said.

"If I am asking for details of official tours of a secretary, I just need to get the copy of his TA bills. There is no legal or judicial assessment to be made, except in only a few cases."

... contd.

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