Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met on Wednesday to appoint a new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), eight Information Commissioners and a new member of the Vigilance Commission, news agency ANI reported.
The meeting, which took place in the Prime Minister’s Chambers, comes after a heated exchange of “chori votes” in Parliament during the ongoing winter session and lasted 90 minutes from 1pm on Wednesday. Rahul Gandhi reportedly put up a dissenting note during the meeting, according to Congress leaders f
In his speech in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi said he “has no voice in such meetings as the ratio is 2:1”.
The three leaders form a three-member committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi.
On December 1, the government informed the Supreme Court that a panel headed by Prime Minister Modi is likely to meet on December 10 to select and recommend names for the posts.
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The CIC and 10 Information Commissioners are tasked with reviewing complaints and appeals filed by applicants under the RTI Act against unsatisfactory responses by government officials to their requests.
According to Section 12(3) of the Right to Information Act, the Prime Minister is the Chairman of the Committee, which also includes the Leader of the Opposition and a Union Minister appointed by the Prime Minister, which selects and recommends names for appointment to the posts of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioner.
The meeting discussed the next Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners for the eight vacant posts in the Central Information Commission (CIC).
Past Congressional Disagreement on CIC Pick
In earlier cases, Congress had also questioned the CIC appointment process. In 2020, for example, the then leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, issued a dissenting note earlier this month regarding the selection process in the CIC, alleging that the government had violated Supreme Court directions in the appointment process.
Over 30,000 pending cases
Under the RTI Act, the CIC has a Chief Information Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners who adjudicate complaints and appeals filed by RTI applicants against non-compliant orders of government officials on their applications.
The CIC, which according to its website is monitoring 30,838 pending cases, is left with just two information commissioners – Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar Tiwari – with eight vacancies.
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The apex appellate body, which will decide on RTI-related complaints and appeals, has been left without a head for the seventh time since 2014 after acting Chief Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya left office on September 13.
The commission became headless for the first time after CIC Rajiv Mathur left office in August 2014.
Samariya, who became the Chief Information Commissioner on November 6, 2023, relinquished the office after attaining the age of 65, according to the office order issued by the Commission.
83 applications for CIC
In an RTI response to activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), the Ministry of Personnel and Training said 83 applications were received for the post of Chief Information Commissioner in response to his advertisement published on May 21.
It also said that 161 applications were received in response to the advertisement published on August 14, 2024 for vacancies for the post of Information Commissioners in the CIC.
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Candidates details are invited as per appointment procedure of Chief Information Commissioner through newspaper advertisements and DoPT website.
These details are compiled by the DoPT and sent to a search committee constituted by the Prime Minister and chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.
The commission became headless for the first time after CIC Rajiv Mathur left office in August 2014.
The names, as well as those shortlisted, along with their applications, are sent to a committee headed by the prime minister. Persons recommended by the committee headed by the Prime Minister are appointed by the President.
Key things
- The CIC currently faces a backlog of over 30,000 RTI cases due to a shortage of information commissioners.
- The appointment process involves a committee chaired by the Prime Minister and including the Leader of the Opposition.
- The CIC has been without a head several times since 2014, highlighting systemic problems in the appointment process.
