Centre likely to finalize CIC name today

New Delhi, Nov 20 (ANI): The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Law and Justice Minister Veerappa Moily and Opposition Party Leader L.K. Advani are meeting here on Friday to decide on who will become the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).

The three-member committee was earlier scheduled to meet on October 27.

The meeting is taking place almost a month after incumbent CIC Wajahat Habibullah resigned and moved to jammu and Kashmir to take on the same post there.

Right to Information (RTI) activists are demanding a non bureaucrat as CIC, to bring more transparency in the system.

The names of Civil Aviation Secretary Madhavan Nambiar, snvironmentalist Shekhar Singh and Information Commissioner A N Tiwari, are doing the rounds for the coveted post.

RTI activists are also demanding to finalisation of rules and the process for the selection of the CIC before the naming of the new chief.

According to the activists, the RTI Act specifies the composition of the selection committee, but is silent about the process, like advertising and shortlisting to be adopted before finalising the name.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had turned down a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking transparency in the selection process of CIC. The court advised the appellants that they should build a public movement to garner support for making changes in a transparency law. (ANI)