Short-staffed CIC gets four officials
THE NEW INFORMATION COMMISSIONERS
NEW DELHI: The government has appointed four new information commissioners in the Central Information Commission, which was functioning with just three of them as against a sanctioned strength of 11, including the Chief Information Commissioner.
President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the appointment of former IFS officer Yashwardhan Kumar Sinha, former IRS officer Vanaja N Sarna, former IAS Neeraj Kumar Gupta and former Law Secretary Suresh Chandra as Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, a government order accessed by PTI said.
Sinha is a 1981-batch Indian Foreign Service officer who was the High Commissioner of India in the United Kingdom.
An alumnus of St Michael’s High School in Patna and St Stephen’s College in Delhi, Sinha had served a number of important postings in the Ministry of External Affairs including the crucial Pakistan-afghanistaniran Division, which he headed for four years as Additional Secretary.
The only woman in the CIC will be Sarna, a 1980-batch Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Excise) officer, who was the Chief of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
Neeraj Kumar Gupta, a 1982batch IAS officer, was Secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management.
Chandra, an Indian Legal Service officer, retired as Union law secretary this year and was also private secretary to the then Law Minister Arun Jaitley between 2002 and 2004.
All the bureaucrats appointed by the government have retired this year. Former IFS officer Yashwardhan Kumar Sinha: 1981-batch Indian Foreign Service officer who was the High Commissioner of India in the United Kingdom
Former IRS officer Vanaja N Sarna: 1980-batch Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Excise) officer, who was the Chief of Central Board of Excise and Customs
Former IAS Neeraj Kumar Gupta: 1982-batch IAS officer who was Secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management
Former Law Secretary Suresh Chandra: Indian Legal Service officer, retired as Union law secretary this year and was also private secretary to the then Law Minister Arun Jaitley
After recent retirements of Chief Information Commissioner R K Mathur and Information Commissioners Yashovardhan Azad, Sridhar Acharyulu and Amitava Bhattacharyya, the Commission, the highest adjudicating authority in RTI matters, was left with three Information Commissioners, prompting activists to approach the Supreme Court on the issue of vacancies.
The Supreme Court had asked the Centre and states to maintain transparency in appointments of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners and upload the details of search committees and applicants on website.
Commenting on the appointment process, Commodore Lokesh Batra, one of the petitioners in the case, said the government has failed to comply with the Supreme Court directions of posting the details on website.
“As my gut feeling said, the government did not comply with the Supreme Court directions viz transparency as it did not post details on its website,” Batra told PTI.