Raj Kumar Goyal To Take Oath As Chief Information Commissioner On Monday

Former IAS officer Raj Kumar Goyal will take oath as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on Monday, President Droupadi Murmu said in a statement, officials confirmed.

A three-member panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recommended Goyal's name, PTI reported on Saturday. Goyal, a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre, retired as Secretary, Department of Justice, under the Ministry of Law and Justice on 31 August.

During his career, he also served as Secretary (Border Management) in the Home Ministry and held key positions both at the Centre and in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, reported PTI.

President Murmu will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Goyal on Monday, officials said. The post of CIC had been vacant since Heeralal Samariya completed his term on 13 September.

The Modi-led panel has also recommended the names of eight Information Commissioners (ICs) for the Central Information Commission. Once these appointments are completed, the Commission will be at its full strength after a gap of more than nine years, transparency activists noted.

The Commission is headed by a CIC and can have up to ten ICs. At present, Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar Tiwari are serving as Information Commissioners.

The eight recommended ICs include former Railway Board chief Jaya Verma Sinha, former IPS officer Swagat Das, who held senior roles in the Intelligence Bureau, Home Ministry and Cabinet Secretariat, former CSS officer Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, former IAS officer Surendra Singh Meena, and ex-Indian Forest Service officer Khushwant Singh Sethi.

Additionally, senior journalists P R Ramesh and Ashutosh Chaturvedi, along with Sudha Rani Relangi, Member (Legal) of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), have been recommended. Relangi has previously served as Director of Prosecution, CBI, and as Joint Secretary & Legislative Counsel, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, PTI reported.

These eight Information Commissioners are expected to take their oath before the newly sworn-in CIC, officials said. The appointments were cleared by the Modi-led committee, which also includes Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi is reported to have submitted a dissent note during the meeting, questioning the criteria adopted for the selections.

(With inputs from PTI)