Information Commissioner

The government has received 161 applications for eight vacant positions of Information Commissioners at the Central Information Commission with applicants from varied backgrounds including a sitting Delhi High Court Judge expressing interest in the job, according to a DoPT list. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has given the list of 161 applicants in response to an RTI query filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd). The list contains names of Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta of Delhi High Court, Special Commissioner Delhi Police Rajender Pal Upadhyay, serving and retired officers from armed forces -- Lt Gen Jaiveer Singh Negi, Group Captain Praveen Shukla, Capt (IN) Abhay Kumar Paluskar, Lt Gen Paramjit Singh Minhas, Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Mago, Lt Gen Harsha Gupta, Lt Gen PR Venkatesh, Lt Gen Ranbir Singh Salaria among others. Journalist GK Suresh Babu associated with Janam TV from Thiruvananthapuram, retired Professor of Political Science from Mysore University Muzaffar ...

Atul Sobti, director general of SCOPE, said that RTI is a citizen-centric act facilitating transparency, ethics, accountability, and empowering citizens

The Centre has sought applications from eligible candidates to fill posts Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission (CIC). Transparency watchdog CIC is headed by the Central Information Commissioner and can have a maximum of 10 Information Commissioners. Persons who have attained the age of 65 years shall not be eligible for appointment, an order issued by the Union Personnel Ministry said. "It is proposed to appoint Information Commissioners, not exceeding six, as may be deemed necessary in the Central Information Commission," it said. The Right to Information (RTI) Act provides that the Information Commissioner shall be a person of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass-media or administration and governance. Persons fulfilling the criteria and interested for appointment to the post of Information Commissioner may send their particulars in a prescribed proforma

The four-member bench headed by Pak CEC Sikander Sultan Raja unanimously disqualified Khan for five years as the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and a member of the national assembly

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, told the top court that despite its instructions, the governments did not fill up the positions

The SC Bench asked the states to file affidavits within two-three days giving details of the steps taken by them in filing up the existing vacancies

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