PTI
New Delhi
The committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to select the new Chief Information Commissioner met here on Wednesday and is learnt to have decided on the appointment of CIC and eight Information Commissioners, with Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi apparently giving a dissent note.
The meeting that lasted over an hour and a half was held at the office of the Prime Minister and was attended by Gandhi and Home Minster Amit Shah.
Sources said the Leader of Opposition sought more details of the appointees and is learnt to have questioned the criterion adopted for the selection of Chief Information Commissioner and eight other Information Commissioners.
Dissatisfied with the process of selection, the Leader of Opposition presented his dissent note.
Details of the appointments decided were not known.
The government had earlier told the Supreme Court about this meeting to select names for these posts.
Under Section 12 (3) of the Right to Information Act, the prime minister is the chairperson of the committee, which also comprises the leader of opposition and a Union minister nominated by the Prime Minister, which selects and recommends the names for appointment as CIC and Information Commissioners.
According to the RTI Act, the CIC has a Chief Information Commissioner and 10 Information Commissioners who adjudicate complaints and appeals filed by the RTI applicants against the unsatisfactory orders of government officials on their applications.
The CIC, which is staring at 30,838 pending cases, according to its website, is left with just two information commissioners — Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar Tiwari — with eight vacancies.
The highest appellate authority to adjudicate RTI-related complaints and appeals had gone headless for the seventh time since 2014 after incumbent Chief Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya demitted office on September 13.
The Commission had become headless for the first time after then CIC Rajiv Mathur demitted office in August 2014.
Samariya, who had become the Chief Information Commissioner on November 6, 2023, demitted office on attaining the age of 65 years, according to an office order issued by the Commission.
In an RTI query, the Department of Personnel and Training had said that 83 applications were received for the post of Chief Information Commissioner in response to its advertisement issued on May 21.
It also said that 161 applications were received in response to an advertisement issued on August 14, 2024, for the vacancies against the post of Information Commissioners in the CIC.
People recommended by the Prime Minister-led committee are appointed by the President.
