With no leader of opposition, govt in a spot over appointment of CIC

Times of India: New Delhi: Wednesday, August 13, 2014.

The absence of a leader of opposition could put the Modi government in a spot with the appointment of a new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) likely to come up soon. The present CIC Rajiv Mathur retires on August 22 leaving the position vacant.

According to the RTI act, the CIC is appointed by the President on the recommendation of the appointments committee that includes the PM, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and one union minister nominated by the PM. However, with the government adamant on not allowing Congress the position of LoP, the appointment could be delayed.

Sources said the government is looking at options provided in the rule book by which the process can be completed without the presence of a designated LoP. The RTI Act does provide for the exceptional case when there is no LoP. Section 12(3) of the Act says, "The leader of the single largest group in opposition of the government in the House of the People shall be deemed to be the Leader of Opposition."

A former director with the country's spy agency, Intelligence Bureau, Mathur has had a short 3-month tenure as CIC. He was appointed as information commissioner in March 2012. Other information commissioners including Vijai Sharma and Basant Seth are the senior-most after Mathur. Traditionally, the government has appointed the senior-most IC as the CIC even if they have a short tenure. This time, however, there is a buzz that the government may chose to ignore precedents and appoint Yashovardhan Azad as the chief.

Currently, there are seven information commissioners including Yashovardhan Azad, Sharat Sabharwal, Manjula Prasher, M A Khan Yusufi and Prof Madabhushanam Sridhar Acharyulu besides Sharma and Seth. The Commission is supposed to have a strength of 10.