NEW DELHI, 6 Nov: Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya was on Monday sworn in as the chief information commissioner (CIC) by President Droupadi Murmu.
The top post at the transparency panel, the Central Information Commission (CIC), was lying vacant following completion of YK Sinha’s tenure on 3 October.
Murmu administered the oath of office to the 63-year-old Samairya at a function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, a communiqué issued by the president’s office said.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, among others.
Samariya, a former IAS officer, had served as labour & employment secretary. He was sworn in as the information commissioner in the CIC on 7 November, 2020.
Samariya’s appointment assumes significance as the Supreme Court had on 30 October asked the Centre and the state governments to take steps to fill the post, saying that, otherwise the 2005 law on right to information will become a “dead letter.”
Taking serious note of the vacancies in the CIC and state information commissions (SIC), a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had also asked the union department of personnel & training (DoPT) to collect information from all states on aspects, including the sanctioned strength of information commissioners in the SICs, vacancies at present and the total number of pending cases there.
After Samariya’s appointment as the CIC, there exists a vacancy of eight information commissioners.
At present, there are two information commissioners in the commission.
The commission is headed by the CIC and can have a maximum of 10 information commissioners.
A CIC and information commissioners can hold the office till they attain 65 years of age. (PTI)
