Chief Information Commissioner

Former IAS officer Raj Kumar Goyal was on Monday sworn in as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) by President Droupadi Murmu. A three-member panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week recommended Goyal's name as the CIC. Goyal is a 1990-batch (retired) Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre. He superannuated as Secretary, Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law and Justice, on August 31. He has also served as Secretary (Border Management) in the Home Ministry and held key posts both at the Centre and in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. President Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Goyal at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The event was attended by Vice President C P Radhakrishnan and Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, among others. The post of CIC fell vacant after Heeralal Samariya completed his term on September 13. The panel, headed

The disposal rate of appeals and complaints filed under the RTI Act has crossed 90 per cent so far this fiscal, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Heeralal Samariya said on Sunday. Samariya, who was sworn in as the CIC on November 6, said this during a meeting with Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh. During an hour-long meeting, Samariya informed the minister that the disposal rate of the Right to Information (RTI) appeals and complaints has, for the first time, crossed 90 per cent in the current financial year, according to a personnel ministry statement. Singh lauded the Central Information Commission for achieving "consistent decline" in pendency with corresponding rise in disposal of the RTI appeals. According to the CIC data available as on November 9, 11,499 RTI appeals and complaints were disposed of, while 12,695 were received, marking a disposal rate of 90.5 per cent, the statement said. In 2022-23, 19,018 appeals were registered, while in 2021-22, 19,

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the government appointed Heeralal Samariya as the CIC without even informing him

Since FY17, the budget allocation for information commissions has shrunk by 82.7% from Rs 31.9 crore

Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha was appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on Saturday, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement. President Ram Nath Kovind has administered the oath of office to Sinha as the Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, it said. The post had been 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. Sinha, aged 62, will have a tenure of about three years as the CIC. A CIC and Information Commissioner are appointed for a tenure of five years or till they attain the age of 65 years. Sinha was short-listed for the post by a three-member committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Besides Modi, leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Home Minister Amit Shah ar

The ex-IFS officer takes over as CIC at a time when activists believe the RTI Act has been whittled down progressively

In response to separate query, the minister said that the Central Information Commission has been functional even after the declaration of lockdown in March, 2020

The apex court also took note of the existing vacancies in CIC and SICs and directed authorities to fill them up within six months

All the bureaucrats appointed by the government have retired this year

There are six Information Commissioners (ICs) working in the CIC against a sanctioned strength of 10