New Delhi, Dec 18: Former Defence Secretary R.K. Mathur has been appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).
The post had fallen vacant after Vijai Sharma completed his tenure on December 1. As per RTI Act, CIC is appointed by the President on the recommendation of the selection committee. The selection committee led Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which has Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and leader of Congress Party in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjuna Kharge, as its members, had finalised Mr. Mathur’s nameon Wednesday.
President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent for appointment of Mr. Mathur as CIC.
He will have tenure of about three years, till he attains the age of 65 years. The 62-year-old Mr. Mathur, a retired IAS officer of Tripura cadre, was made Defence Secretary for a fixed two-year term on May 28, 2013. Mr. Mathur did his graduation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and post graduation from IIT, Delhi, has held various positions in his cadre state and at the Centre.
At present, there are seven Information Commissioners — Basant Seth, Yashovardhan Azad, Sharat Sabharwal, Manjula Prasher, M A Khan Yusufi, Madabhushanam Sridhar Acharyulu and Sudhir Bhargava.
