The Modi government has reportedly appointed Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha (Retd.IFS:1981) as the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), two months after the position at the top transparency watchdog fell vacant.
Sinha was sworn in as Information Commissioner in January 1, 2019. He is a former diplomat who was appointed as High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka. His predecessor Bimal Julka had completed his tenure as Chief Information Commissioner on August 26, after which the appellate body had, for the fifth time in six years, become headless.
The Centre is also learnt to have cleared the name of senior journalist Uday Mahurkar as Information Commissioner.
While the sanctioned strength of information commissioners in the central appellate body for RTI is 10, at present, with the latest appointments, it has six commissioners. The four vacancies have persisted since November 2018.
