Mr. Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha is appointed as the country’s Chief Information Commissioner by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.
The President has also appointed Heeralal Samariya as the Information Commissioner. The appointment will come into effect from the forenoon of 7th November, 2020.
The President administered the oath of the office to Mr. Sinha in a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Later, three newly selected Central Information Commissioners, former Labour Secretary Heera Lal Samariya, former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General Saroj Punhani , and journalist Uday Mahurkar , administered the oath.
Mr. Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha is a former diplomat and served as a Commissioner for almost two years. He will hold the position of CIC for another three years.
Under the Right to Information Act, The Central Information Commission is the highest appellate body. The commission has not functioned at full strength for almost four years and is currently facing a backlog of more than 37,000 pending cases.
The new appointments will take its strength to six members plus one chief which still leaves four vacancies.
