Selection at CIC and CVC likely to be made today
23 May, 2015
After a long wait, the three member committee led by the Prime Minister will meet today to decide on appointments of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioner at the Central Information Commission (CIC). The other two members of the panel for the selection of the CIC are a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by Prime Minister, which is Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. It has been reported that 12 people have been shortlisted from among 530 applicants.
As per Right to Information Act, 2005 the CIC comprises of one Chief Information Commissioner and upto ten Information Commissioners. After the end of the term of Rajiv Mathur as chief of the CIC on August 22, 2014, the post has been lying vacant and there a also vacancy of three Information Commissioners in the CIC.
The decision regarding the Chief of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is also to be taken up during the meeting at the PM residence where Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to participate as member in place of Arun Jaitley. The vacancies at the CVC have been in existence since last year when the Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar and Vigilance Commissioner J M Garg left the office after completing their term on September 28 and September 7, respectively.
RTI activists have called for transparent process for appointing information commissioners and have asked for the disclosure of the guidelines or criteria on the basis of which the search committee is short-listing candidates to send to the selection committee.