Former Defence Secretary R.K. Mathur has been appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), breaking away from the convention of appointing the head from among the serving Information Commissioners.
The post had fallen vacant after Vijai Sharma completed his tenure on December 1. He will have tenure of about three years, till he attains the age of 65 years.
Fact Punch
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.
About R. K. 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.
Current Affairs: 18th December, 2015 Important Days in November and December Current Affairs bullet points Round up 7th to 14th December, 2015 Current Affairs Round up November, 2015.
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