Chief, 3 ICs appointed in CIC; three posts still lie vacant

The post had been lying vacant for over two months after Bimal Julka completed his term on August 26

Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha was on Saturday formally chosen as the new chief of the Central Information Commission (CIC), while three others -- Heeralal Samariya, Saroj Punhani and Uday Mahurkar -- were appointed as Information Commissioners in the transparency body where three more posts lie vacant.

The appointment orders of Sinha, an incumbent Information Commissioner, and three others were issued by President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday, taking the total number of Commissioners to eight in an 11-member body. The CIC can have 10 information commissioners and one Chief Information Commissioner.

Sinha's appointment comes 72 days after the then CIC Bimal Jhulka retired with activists saying it was the fifth time in six years that the transparency body was left headless.

The President administered the oath of office to Sinha in Rashtrapati Bhavan. The three information commissioners were administered oath of office by Sinha later.

The new appointments also comes with a dissent note written by Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a member in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led three-member Selection Committee. Home Minister Amit Shah is another member of the panel, which had met twice in October to finalise the names of the chief and other information commissioners.

On October 29, DH had reported about the Selection Committee choosing Sinha as CIC and Mahurkar as an Information Commissioner.

Former IAS officer Samariya was Labour Secretary before his retirement in September this year. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and his area of expertise includes administration and governance.

Punhani, an IA & AS officer, was holding the post of Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General (HR & Training) in Government of India and her area of expertise includes administration and Governance.

Mahurkar, who was a Senior Deputy Editor with India Today and considers himself a follower of controversial right-wing figure Savarkar, is also the author of 'Marching with a Billion', a book on Modi's governance.

Vanaja N Sarna, Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Suresh Chandra and Amita Pandove are the other Information Commissioners.

Sources said Chowdhury has submitted a dissent note, objecting to the way in which the short-listing of candidates has been done.

Chowdhury is also learnt to have objected to Mahurkar's appointment as his name was not among the applicants but found space in the short-list. Seven persons, including Mahurkar, were short-listed for the post of Information Commissioner from among 355 applicants.

While welcoming the appointments, transparency activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri of Satark Nagrik Sangathan said it was disappointing that all the vacancies have not been filled. "It is unfortunate that despite vacancies arising due to routine retirement of incumbent commissioners, the central government has been consistently failing in ensuring timely appointment of commissioners," they said.

They also said that they were "extremely concerned" that the directions of the Supreme Court to ensure transparency in the appointment process have been violated.

Citing the February 2019 judgement, they said the Supreme Court had directed the government the names of the members of the search and selection committees, the agenda and minutes of committee meetings, the advertisement issued for vacancies, particulars of applicants, names of shortlisted candidates, file notings and correspondence related to appointments, be placed in the public domain.

The Court had also noted, “it would also be appropriate for the Search Committee to make the criteria for shortlisting the candidates, public, so that it is ensured that shortlisting is done on the basis of objective and rational criteria.”

"Other than the advertisement issued for vacancies, none of the other information is available in the public domain. In fact, the DOPT even denied this information under the RTI Act...Lack of transparency in the selection process raises doubts in the minds of the public undermining faith in the institution," Bhardwaj and Johri said.

Activists had earlier criticised the Modi government for allowing the CIC to remain headless.

Bhardwaj and Johri along with another transparency activist Lokesh Batra had also approached the Supreme Court seeking urgent hearing alleging that the Central government has defied the apex court's directions on appointments in the body.