The tenure of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Y K Sinha ended on Tuesday. During his tenure, Sinha managed to reduce the number of pending cases before the transparency panel by more than 50 per cent.
His successor's name is yet to be announced by the government.
A committee headed by the prime minister and comprising the leader of the opposition and a Union Cabinet minister selects the CIC and information commissioners.
Those recommended by the committee are appointed to the Central Information Commission by the president.
As against the total strength of one CIC and 10 information commissioners (ICs), the commission is currently functioning with one CIC and four ICs. With Sinha demitting office, it will be left with just four ICs whose tenure will also end by November, officials said.
A 1981-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Sinha assumed charge as an IC on January 1, 2019. He was subsequently elevated to the CIC's post.
Sinha has served as India's high commissioner to the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka, besides performing a number of important assignments in the external affairs ministry in India and abroad.
He took the reins of the commission on November 7, 2020, with pending cases at a staggering 39,000, which he brought down to less than half, with just 19,000 pending cases and complaints before the commission, according to the latest data.
Son of former Vice Chief of Army Staff, late Lieutenant General S K Sinha, who was also the governor of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha pushed for bulk disposal of frivolous and vexatious appeals and complaints and kept hearing the cases even during the second wave of Covid-19 through audio-conferencing to avoid any pile-up of cases.
Published 03 October 2023, 17:29 IST