The establishing of the State Accountability Commission (SAC) has not furthered the cause of accountability for the reasons that successive popular governments have reduced this commission like all other commissions a toothless tiger. Though the government is very rightly blamed for scrapping the powers of the commission from time to time for one reasons or the other but members of the commission within the limited powers can also can work for furthering the causes of accountability. In fact the government instead of making the State Accountability Commission (SAC) an institution of public accountability has made it a rehabilitation center for the retired judges of the high court. The concerted attempts of bureaucracy at the instance of the power wielding politicians to weaken the commission has by all means raised many questions even on the need for allowing it to remain operational and the reasons are crystal clear . One big reasons for questioning the institutional operation of the State Accountability Commission is that none of its recommendations have made any impact on the Government functioning. While most of these recommendations made by commission against IAS, IFS and IPS officers of great reputation have been handed over to the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) for necessary action , the commission is now left with the cases of ministers and politicians, most of which have been stayed by the High Court. A steep decline in number of cases registered in SAC on daily as well as monthly basis has been experienced during recent years and people concerned about the working of the government are upset with the poor showing of the commission and shockingly people now choose not to file complaints against high profile power wielding politicians for the fear of being victimised.
The government’s non seriousness shows that people concerned about the working of the commission will have to wait for a very long time to see State Accountability Commission (SAC) getting back the institutional, constitutional and administrative powers taken away by it by the previous governments.
Keeping in view the importance of the State Accountability Commission (SAC) the Mehooba led PDP-BJP coalition government should have started the exercise for restoring the powers taken away from it by previous governments. As has been experienced during last three years of PDP-BJP coalition rule in the state the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti herself is not also unfolding suitable measures for restoring the powers of the commission take away from its by the previous government. The government’s non seriousness shows that people concerned about the working of the commission will have to wait for a very long time to see State Accountability Commission (SAC) getting back the institutional, constitutional and administrative powers taken away by it by the previous governments.
