Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha became the 11th Chief Information Commissioner

  • President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office to Sinha.
  • The new CIC in turn administered the oath to three newly selected Central Information Commissioners: 
  1. Former Labour Secretary Heera Lal Samariya, 
  2. Former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General Saroj Punhani, 
  3. Journalist Uday Mahurkar.
YASHVARDHAN SINHA
  • The post of Chief Information Commissioner was lying vacant for over two months after Bimal Julka completed his term on August 26.
  • Sinha, a former diplomat, joined as the Information Commissioner on January 1, 2019. 
  • He has served as India’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka.

CIC
  • The Central Information Commission is a statutory body set up under the Right to Information Act in 2005.
  • Headquarter- New Delhi.
  • The commission includes one chief information commissioner and not more than ten information commissioners.
  • With the induction of Mahurkar, Samariya and Punhani, the strength of Information Commissioners will be seven.
APPOINTMENT
  • Appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a committee consisting of:
  1. The Prime Minister as Chairperson.
  2. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha
  3. A Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
  • The first CIC was Wajahat Habibullah. 
CONTROVERSY
  • Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is a member of the selection panel which chooses Commissioners, submitted a dissent note objecting to the appointment of Mr. Mahurkar, as Mahurkar was not on the list of applicants for the job.
  • He also protested a wider lack of transparency in the shortlisting process.
  • In a February 2019 judgement, the Supreme Court had directed that information about the applicants, the search committee and their criteria for shortlisting candidates all be placed in the public domain. 
  • However, the Centre has declined to make such information available with regard to the recent appointments. 


SOURCES: IE, TH

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