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The government had given information to the Supreme Court The Prime Minister Modi-led panel is likely to meet on December 10 to select and recommend names for these posts on December 1.
Under 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 nominated by the Prime Minister, which selects and recommends names for appointment as the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners.
As per the RTI Act, the CIC consists of a Chief Information Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners who decide complaints and appeals filed by RTI applicants against unsatisfactory orders of government officials on their applications.
The CIC, which, according to its website, has 30,838 pending cases, has only two information commissioners – Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar Tiwari – left and eight vacancies.
The highest appellate authority, which decides on RTI-related complaints and appeals, has been left leaderless for the seventh time since 2014 after the current Chief Information Commissioner Hiralal Samaria stepped down on September 13.
The Commission was left leaderless for the first time after the then CIC Rajeev Mathur stepped down in August 2014.
According to an office order issued by the commission, Samaria, who became the Chief Information Commissioner on November 6, 2023, stepped down from the post on attaining the age of 65 years.
In response to an RTI to activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), the Department of Personnel and Training had said that 83 applications were received for the post of Chief Information Commissioner in response to the advertisement issued on May 21.
It also said that 161 applications were received in response to an advertisement issued on August 14, 2024, for vacancies in the post of Information Commissioner in the CIC.
As per the procedure for appointment of Chief Information Commissioner, details of interested persons are invited through advertisement in newspapers and through the website of DoPT.
These details are tabulated by the DoPT and sent to a search committee constituted by the Prime Minister and chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.
The names as well as those shortlisted are sent along with their applications to a committee headed by the Prime Minister, which also includes the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and a cabinet minister.
Individuals recommended by a committee headed by the Prime Minister are appointed by the President.