The Central Information Commission (CIC) will see the exit of four Information Commissioners including the Chief Information Commissioner following the completion of their term. CIC and ICs hold office for a term of 5 years or till they attain the age of 65 years.

 

Yashovardhan Azad (Retd IPS) and M Sridhar Acharyulu are completing their term on 21 November. CIhief Information Commissioner R K Mathur (Retd IAS) is due to retire on November 24 whereas Amitava Bhattacharya (Retd IAS) will be retiring on December 01.

 

This will leave the CIC panel with just 03 ICs namely - Sudhir Bhargava (Retd IAS), Bimal Julka (Retd IAS) and Divya Prakash Sinha (Retd IPS).

 

All it will reduce the strength of the CIC to just three on December 01 as opposed to the sanctioned strength of 11.

 

The process to fill up the anticipated vacancies kick-started in the mid of the year but the appointments are yet to be made. The Central government has not filled any vacant posts in the CIC since 2016.

 

In July 2018, the Supreme Court had directed the central government to inform as to by when it would be filling the posts of the vacant information commissioners. On the day of the hearing in court, the government had in a hurry issued an advertisement for filling up the vacancies in the CIC. But there was no mention about the number of posts it intended to fill up.