No New Appointments to CIC Despite Government Receiving 256 Applications

An advertisement was issued to fill up vacancies in the statutory body eight months ago. The Central Information Commission is already working below half its capacity and all the incumbent commissioners are set to demit office by the end of November.

New Delhi: Though the Union government received 256 applications for the posts of information commissioners in the Central Information Commission (CIC), no appointments have been made in eight months to fill up vacancies in the statutory body which is already working below half its capacity. This is despite the fact that all the incumbent commissioners are set to demit office by the end of November.

This information was revealed on Thursday, August 24, in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by Commodore (Retired) Lokesh Batra. In December 2022, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) asked eligible applicants to apply for the posts of information commissioners (not exceeding six).

The deadline for application was January 12, 2023, by which time the DoPT received 256 applications. In addition, 12 persons sent their applications after the deadline had passed. Though eight months have passed since the deadline, no appointments have been made.

In response to Commodore Batra’s RTI query, the DoPT gave details of the search and selection process and that the particulars of applicants were tabulated by it and sent to a search committee constituted by the prime minister and headed by the cabinet secretary.

Appointments are finalised by a committee headed by the prime minister and comprising the leader of the opposition and a Union cabinet minister. The persons who are recommended by the committee are appointed to the CIC by the President.

The CIC is the highest appellate authority in RTI matters concerning the Union government. As against the total strength of one chief information commissioner and ten information commissioners, it is functioning with one chief information commissioner and four information commissioners.

The tenure of chief information commissioner Y.K. Sinha will end on October 3. The remaining information commissioners — Suresh Chandra, Uday Mahurkar, Heeralal Samariya and Saroj Punhani — will leave office in November, according to the news agency PTI.

RTI activists have long protested the Narendra Modi government’s alleged attempts to dilute the landmark transparency law. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, passed in the recently concluded session of parliament, will further reduce the scope of the RTI Act, activists have said. Recently, years of information stored on the Union government’s portal for RTI applications “disappeared” suddenly. After activists raised an alarm, the government claimed that the website is “under maintenance” and “archival data will be available soon”.