Government forms panel to shortlist candidates for vacant posts of information commissioners

New Delhi: The government has constituted a search committee under Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan to shortlist candidates for eight vacant positions of information commissioners at the Central Information Commission (CIC).

The five-member committee also comprised secretaries from Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, besides 16th Finance Commission member Manoj Panda, according to a government order.

On August 14 last year, the Department of Personnel and Training had issued advertisement seeking applications for the post of information commissioners .

In response to the advertisement, the government had received 161 applications for the eight vacant positions of information commissioners at the CIC with applicants from varied backgrounds including a sitting Delhi High Court judge expressing interest in the job, according to a DoPT list provided in an RTI reply to activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd).

According to the procedure of the Right to Information Act, particulars of interested persons are invited through advertisements in newspapers and through the DoPT website.

The names of applicants are sent to the search committee which is constituted by the prime minister.

Then names of all the candidates, including the shortlisted ones, along with their applications are sent to the three-member committee headed by the prime minister which also includes leader of the opposition, and a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister.

The names cleared by the three-member committee are appointed by the President for a period of five years or till the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

The CIC has one chief information commissioner and 10 information commissioners.

The CIC is the highest appellate authority in the RTI matters with powers to levy penalties up to Rs 25,000 on government officers who do not furnish responses to RTI petitions in a timely manner or violate provisions of the law.