Sushma Singh takes oath as CIC

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the new Chief Information Commissioner Sushma Singh during the swearing-inat the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday.

The President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday administered the oath of office to former IAS officer Sushma Singh as Chief Information Commissioner at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

A panel comprising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, and Law Minister Kapil Sibal appointed Ms. Singh.

Ms. Singh, who is the fifth Chief Information Commissioner of CIC, is the second woman to be appointed to the post after Deepak Sandhu, whose term ended on Wednesday.

She had joined the CIC as Information Commissioner on September 23, 2009.

Prior to joining the CIC, Ms. Singh served as Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministries of Information & Broadcasting, Panchyati Raj and the Development of the North East Region (DONER).

Besides her, there are eight Information Commissioners — Rajiv Mathur, Vijai Sharma, Basant Seth, Yashovardhan Azad, Sharat Sabharwal, Manjula Prasher, M A Khan Yusufi and Prof Madabhushanam Sridhar Acharyulu.

The CIC is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed by information seekers, under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, against government departments or public authorities.