Former Defence Secretary RK Mathur has been appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), breaking away from the convention of appointing the head from among the serving Information Commissioners. He will have tenure of about three years, till he attains the age of 65 years. The post had fallen vacant after Vijai Sharma completed his tenure on December 1.

About RK Mathur

• 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, who 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.
• He had been Secretary in Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Defence Production and Supplies.

Selection

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee, which has Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and leader of Congress Party in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjuna Kharge, as its members, had finalised Mr. Mathur’s name.
• President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent for appointment of Mr. Mathur as CIC.
• As per RTI Act, CIC is appointed by the President on the recommendation of the selection committee.

About CIC

• 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.
• As per convention, the senior most Information Commissioner is chosen as chief. Presently, Mr. Seth is the senior-most Information Commissioner.
• The Commission comprises of one chief and ten Information Commissioners. There is still vacancy of three Information Commissioners.
• A total of 33,724 complaints and appeals are pending in the Commission, as per official data.