Justice Muralidhar among Rahul Gandhi's choices for CIC post rejected by PM Modi-led panel

He had also suggested IAS officer Sumita Dawra or academician Faizan Mustafa for the post; committee eventually went with Amit Shah’s recommendation to choose former Law Secretary Raj Kumar Goyal

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wanted a Prime Minister-headed Selection Committee to choose either former IAS officer Sumita Dawra or former Odisha High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar or academician Faizan Mustafa as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) in December 2025 but his suggestion was rejected, official documents show.

Instead, three-member committee went with Home Minister Amit Shah’s recommendation to choose former Law Secretary Raj Kumar Goyal as the head of the Central Information Commission where the top post was lying vacant for months. Documents also showed Rahul objected to one of the eight names decided by the panel to be appointed as Information Commissioners.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led panel has a Union Minister chosen by the PM and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha as members. Transparency activists have been claiming that the panel is loaded in favour of the government and the Leader of the Opposition’s choices have been vetoed owing to the government having the majority in it.

According to the minutes of the meeting held on December 10 last year to choose the CIC, the panel considered “all eligible applicants who applied” in response to advertisements for the post of the CIC as well as the names shortlisted by the Search Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

The Home Minister “suggested the name” of Goyal for the appointment as the CIC. "However, the Leader of the Opposition disagreed and suggested three other names. After taking into account all the relevant factors”, the panel recommended Goyal's name, it said. 

Rahul, however, suggested Dawra as his choice from the shortlist and went on to suggest the names of Justice Muralidhar and Prof Mustafa in that order if the panel was “inclined to consider candidates from outside the current shortlist”. Both are “distinguished professionals with exemplary records in law, justice and public service”, his note said.

He said Dawra, a retired 1991-batch Andhra Pradesh cadre officer, has over three decades of experience in public policy and development across diverse sectors. “Her breadth of expertise and administrative acumen make her well-suited to shoulder the responsibilities of the CIC.”

Dawra, who retired as a Secretary in the Union government, had worked in the Ministries of Labour and Employment and Commerce and Industry, among others. Her work was appreciated by the Supreme Court during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that despite being infected by the virus, she and her team continued to work and manage the supply of medical oxygen that the country “so desperately” needed.

His admirers claim that Justice Muralidhar, known for his judgments like decriminalising Section 377,  was wronged by the Union government citing his “midnight” transfer from Delhi High Court to Punjab and Haryana High Court within hours of his adverse remarks on the Delhi police for its “inaction” during the 2020 Delhi riots.

The documents related to the appointment of the CIC and Information Commissioners were provided to transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired) on an RTI query and uploaded on the website of the Department of Personnel and Training.