Hiralal Samaria became Chief Information Commissioner
The Central Government has made Hiralal Samaria the Chief Information Commissioner. President Draupadi Murmu on Monday administered the oath to Hiralal Samaria as the head of CIC. Let us tell you that Hiralal Samaria is the first Dalit Chief Information Commissioner of the country. Samaria, resident of Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, is a 1985 batch IAS officer.
Let us tell you that the post of Chief Information Commissioner had become vacant on October 3 because the tenure of YK Sinha had ended on that day. Even after the appointment of Samaria, eight posts of Information Commissioner are vacant. At present there are two Information Commissioners in CIC.
VIDEO | Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya was sworn in as Chief Information Commissioner by President Droupadi Murmu. pic.twitter.com/ypxkIRIj6p
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 6, 2023
The Supreme Court had directed the Central and State Governments to take steps to fill the vacant posts in CIC and State Information Commissions (SIC). The court had said on October 30 that if this does not happen, the Right to Information Act will become ineffective.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra had asked the DoPT to collect information from all the states on several aspects including sanctioned posts, vacancies in the State Information Commissions and the total number of cases pending there.
