Sir — This refers to the elevation of Information Commissioner Vijai Sharma as the new Chief Information Commissioner, and the other appointments at the Central Information Commission. With about 40,000 petitions pending before the commission, and more piling up every day, the Union Government should appoint three more commissioners immediately. The process of selecting a new commissioner is too slow. The Union Government takes more than nine months to decide on a new commissioner.
The CIC must function at its full strength of 11 commissioners, which includes the Chief Information Commissioner. The new commissioners must be selected much before the retirement of the existing ones so that they may take oath on the very day the vacancy is caused. Also, the commissioners should automatically become chief commissioners, according to seniority. Short-term chiefs are a liability as they devote much of their tenure in availing travel concessions and attending conferences etc.