Sudhir Bhargava new CIC

Who in news?

• The government has appointed Sudhir Bhargava as new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) along with four new Information Commissioners in the Central Information commission.
• Bhargava, who is Information Commissioner in the CIC, has been appointed as new chief of the panel.

Who are other appointed?

• President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the appointment of former IFS officer Yashwardhan Kumar Sinha, former IRS officer Vanaja N Sarna, former IAS Neeraj Kumar Gupta and former Law Secretary Suresh Chandra as Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission.
• Sinha is a 1981-batch Indian Foreign Service officer who was the High Commissioner of India in the United Kingdom.
• An alumnus of St Michael’s High School in Patna and St Stephen’s College in Delhi, Sinha had served a number of important postings in the Ministry of External Affairs including the crucial Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Division, which he headed for four years as Additional Secretary.
• The only woman in the CIC will be Sarna, a 1980-batch Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Excise) officer, who was the Chief of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
• Neeraj Kumar Gupta, a 1982-batch IAS officer, was Secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management.
• Chandra, an Indian Legal Service officer, retired as Union law secretary this year and was also private secretary to the then Law Minister Arun Jaitley between 2002 and 2004.
• All the bureaucrats appointed by the government have retired this year.
• After recent retirements of Chief Information Commissioner R K Mathur and Information Commissioners Yashovardhan Azad, Sridhar Acharyulu and Amitava Bhattacharyya, the Commission, the highest adjudicating authority in RTI matters, was left with three Information Commissioners, prompting activists to approach the Supreme Court on the issue of vacancies.

Role of the Supreme Court?

• The Supreme Court had asked the Centre and states to maintain transparency in appointments of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners and upload the details thereof.

About CIC

• The Central Information Commission(CIC) set up under the right to information act  is the authorised body, established in 2005,under the Government of  India to act upon complaints from those individuals who have not been able to submit information requests to a Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer due to either the officer not have been appointed, or because the respective Central Assistant Public Information Officer or State Assistant Public Information Officer refused to receive the application for information under the RTI Act.
• The Commission includes 1 Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and not more than 10 Information Commissioners (IC) who are appointed by the President of India The first Chief Information Commissioner of India was wajahat habibullah. The present Chief Information Commissioner of India is Sudhir bhargava
• CIC and members are appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a committee consisting of—Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; a Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
• There are two woman who became CIC till now first is Ms Deepak Sandhu (4th CIC) and Second Ms Sushma Singh(5th CIC)