Haryana news: Decks cleared for appointment of Information Commissioners

The long-pending appointments to the State Information Commission may finally see movement, with the Selection Committee, headed by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, scheduled to meet here tomorrow to recommend names for the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and seven Information Commissioners.

Committee to recommend names to Governor

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• The Congress, which has failed to finalise the Leader of Opposition for over seven months, has asked ex-LoP Bhupinder Singh Hooda to attend tomorrow’s meeting

• The selection committee meeting, to be chaired by CM Nayab Singh Saini, will recommend names of CIC and seven Information Commissioners to the Governor

• Earlier, the Chief Secretary had requested the Congress to either send the name of the LoP or nominate any other MLA to attend the meeting for making statutory appointments

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Acting on a formal request from the BJP-led Haryana Government, the Congress has nominated former Chief Minister and ex-Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Bhupinder Singh Hooda to participate in the meeting. The committee’s recommendations will be forwarded to the Governor for final approval.

A Search Committee, chaired by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi and comprising Additional Chief Secretaries Sudhir Rajpal and Sumita Misra, has already shortlisted three candidates each for the post of CIC and seven Information Commissioners. Applications were invited on March 4, 2025.

It may be recalled that the Congress’s delay of over seven-and-a-half months in finalising a new LoP had stalled several key statutory appointments, including those to the State Information Commission.

In light of the delay, the Chief Secretary had written to Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Udai Bhan, requesting the party to either name the LoP or nominate a senior MLA to be part of the selection panel. The nomination of Hooda is a direct outcome of that communication.

The LoP, along with a senior Cabinet Minister, sits on the Chief Minister-led Selection Committee, which makes appointments to top statutory bodies.

Currently, the State Information Commission has only three serving Information Commissioners and is grappling with a backlog of over 7,000 pending cases.