New Delhi: Former IAS officer Raj Kumar Goyal has been sworn in as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) by President Droupadi Murmu. The ceremony was attended by Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, and several other dignitaries.
Goyal, a 1990-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre (Arunachal Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram–Union Territories), recently retired on 31 August as Secretary, Department of Justice, under the Ministry of Law and Justice. He has also held the position of Secretary (Border Management) in the Ministry of Home Affairs and served in key administrative roles in both the central government and the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir.
The appointment comes on the recommendation of a three-member panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The panel made the recommendation last week, filling the CIC vacancy that arose after Hiralal Samaria’s term ended on 13 September.
In addition to Goyal, the panel recommended eight Information Commissioners. Transparency activists note that with the new CIC and ICs joining, the Central Information Commission will resume functioning at full strength after more than nine years of reduced capacity.
Other notable recommendations for Information Commissioner positions included Jaya Verma Sinha (former Railway Board Chairman), Swagat Das (former IPS officer with key stints in IB, Home Ministry, and Cabinet Secretariat), Sanjeev Kumar Jindal (CSS officer), Surendra Singh Meena (former IAS), and Khushwant Singh Sethi (former IFS officer). Currently, Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar Tiwari continue as serving Information Commissioners.
With this new team in place, the Central Information Commission is set to strengthen transparency and accountability across the country.
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