Who among the following are members of a Committee that recommends the appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner ?
(A) Prime Minister
(B) Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha
(C) Leader of Op

Question

Who among the following are members of a Committee that recommends the appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner ?
(A) Prime Minister
(B) Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha
(C) Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha
(D) Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.
(E) Speaker of the Lok Sabha
Answer options :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (1), '(A), (B) and (D)'. Five statements are printed here, not four, and the answer is settled by the Right to Information Act, 2005 itself. Section 12 provides that the Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioners are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee of three: the Prime Minister, who chairs it; the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha; and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. Those are exactly statements (A), (B) and (D). The Act adds a proviso worth knowing, that where no Leader of the Opposition has been recognised in the Lok Sabha, the leader of the single largest opposition group in that House is deemed to be the Leader of the Opposition for this purpose — a provision that mattered in the Lok Sabhas of 2014 and 2019, when no party held the tenth of the seats conventionally required for recognition. Statement (C), the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and statement (E), the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, are not members of this committee, though each of them sits on other high selection committees, which is exactly why they are printed here. The parallel provision for the States is worth learning alongside: the State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners are appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Chief Minister as chairperson, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, and a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Chief Minister — the same three-fold pattern of head of government, leader of opposition and a nominated minister.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) This option keeps the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, which are correct, but then adds the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha while dropping the nominated Union Cabinet Minister, who is the third actual member. Both additions are drawn from other committees — the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha sits on the selection committee for the National Human Rights Commission, and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha sits on the selection committee for the Lokpal — so a candidate who has learnt several such bodies without keeping their memberships apart is likely to be drawn here.  (c) This is the closest of the wrong options: it names all three genuine members and then adds the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha as a fourth. The committee under section 12 of the Right to Information Act has three members and no more, so the addition alone defeats it. The error is a natural one, since a candidate who knows that the leader of the opposition is represented may assume that both Houses are; but the Act names only the Lok Sabha, and in most selection committees of this type it is the Lower House whose leader of the opposition is included.  (d) This option has the right number of members but the wrong third one, substituting the Speaker of the Lok Sabha for the Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. The Speaker's place on a selection committee is a real thing — it is the Lokpal selection committee that includes the Speaker — but not here. Getting the size of the committee right while getting a member wrong is the most instructive way to fail this question, because it shows that the structure has been remembered and the statute has not.

Concept: The Right to Information Act, 2005 creates a two-tier machinery of appeal and enforcement: the Central Information Commission for central public authorities and a State Information Commission in each State. The Central Information Commission consists of the Chief Information Commissioner and not more than ten Information Commissioners. All of them are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the three-member committee described in section 12 — the Prime Minister as chairperson, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. The commissioners are to be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance, and they may not be members of Parliament or of a State legislature, hold any other office of profit, be connected with any political party or carry on any business or profession. The Chief Information Commissioner can be removed by the President only on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity after a reference to and an inquiry by the Supreme Court, a protection modelled on that given to judges. The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 changed the tenure and salary provisions, moving them out of the Act and leaving them to be prescribed by the Central Government, a change criticised at the time as bearing on the Commission's independence.

State PCS 2024 Q71 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q71 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer