New Delhi: The government has appointed Sudhir Bhargava as Chief Information Commissioner, along with four information commissioners, all of whom were bureaucrats, in the Central Information Commission. Bhargava was Information Commissioner in the CIC. The panel was functioning with three members against the sanctioned strength of 11, including the chief information commissioner.
President Ram Nath Kovind has approved the appointment of former IFS officer Yashwardhan Kumar Sinha, ex-IRS officer Vanaja N Sarna, former IAS Neeraj Kumar Gupta and former law secretary Suresh Chandra as information commissioners in the panel, a government order said. 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).